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THE 

IRISH IN AMERICA 

ONE THOUSAND 
YEARS BEFORE COLUMBUS 

MARTIN J. MULLOY 

7iu ' 



Angel Guardian Press 

1906 

Boston, Mass. 









c 



LIBRARY of CONGRfSS 

Two Codes Ruceived 

JUM 2H906 

fl Copyn^m Entry 



tLASS CC XXc. No. 



' COPY B 



Copyrighted hy 

MARTIN J. MULLOY 

1906 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Early Traditions i 

II. CONDLA THE BEAUTIFUL 7 

III. CucHULLiN, Champion of the Red 
Branch Knights of Ulster 15 

IV. Tir Na-N-og, "Land of Perpetual 
Youth" 22 

V. Adventures of the Middle Ages 28 

VI. Biography of St. Brendan 31 

VII. Legends of the First Voyage... 39 
VIII. Gleanings from the Early Ages 49 
IX. Further Adventures of Celtic 

Adventurers 55 

X. Knowledge the English and 
Spaniard Sailors Gained by the 
Adventure of Celtic Traditions 65 
XI. St. Matthew of Finisterre in 

Search of Jewish Patriarchs. . . 70 



XII. CuLDEES OR Celtic Priests in the 
West and Northwest 75 

XIII. Barton and His Voyage 84 

XIV. CuLDEES ' \ND THE NORTHMEN 93 

XV. Irland It Mikla (Greater 

Ireland) loi 

XVI. Irish Chronology 107 

XVII. Irish Documentary Proofs 116 

XVIII. Literature of the Period Estab- 

lishing New Facts 1 23 

XIX. The Gauls and the Whaling In- 

dustry 128 

XX. Filson's Proof of the Celtic 
Tongue Being Spoken by American 

Indians 134 

XXI. The Implanting of the Cross on 

American Soil 139 

XXII. Father Le Clerque Concludes 
That the Cross was Implanted 
on American Soil by the Gauls. 142 



CHAPTER I. 
Early Traditions. 

The Ireland of the early ages was not 
only the land of saints and scholars, but 
also the country of travelers. Energetic 
and restless; proud of their independence, 
both religious and political, the Irish ap- 
pear to have inherited the qualities of 
their legendary ancestors, the Phoenicians. 
They loved change and activity, and like 
them, they hesitated not to carry into 
other climes their genius and enterprise. 
The sea which surrounded them on all 
sides assisted them considerably in those 
projects. They spoke from their imag- 
inations with its changing colors, its various 
horizons and the marvellous phenom- 
ena of which it is the theatre. They 
dreaded not to face its tempests in their 
barques covered with skins heavily laid 
on, and coarsely stitched, which recall the 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

''baidares" of the modern Esquimaux, 
and which had struck the mariners of 
antiquity with astonishment. This "cur- 
ach" of the ancient Celt is described by 
Caesar, by Lucien, by Pliny and by Solin; 
and the description given by any of those, 
two thousand years ago, will find its exact 
counterpart to-day on the shores of Con- 
nemara or Galway Bay. 

Avienus says of them: "A numerous 
people live there having a proud spirit 
and great activity, free to the exclusive 
cares of commerce, and they traverse the 
seas in their canoes, which are constructed 
either of pine or fir, and wTapped in furs 
and hides." The framework of the mod- 
ern curach is just as he described it, but 
a plain cheap tarred canvas does duty for 
the furs and hides which go to grace the 
trappings of the foreign master, while the 
cheaper material is always characteristic 
of the slave. 

Long before either the Italian or the 
Englishman had any notion of venturing 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

from their native shores, and ages before 
the modern idea of English or Italian ex- 
isted, the Irish Celts felt it a national 
anxiety to explore and introduce into 
strange lands their science and their ex- 
perience, which even in those remote ages 
caused the country to be surnamed the 
"Island of scholars-," from the great num- 
ber of its monasteries, the learning of its 
druids, and above all the captivating ardor 
of its missionaries, who could be found on 
all seas and in all the countries of Western 
Europe, professing the then unknown laws 
of ''justice" and "humanity," and teaching 
the scientific works so little known outside 
of Alexandria, such as those of Pris- 
cian, Solin, Pliny, Ptolemy and Pythagoras. 
While circumstantial evidence points 
to a very early civilization, unfortunately 
the direct or documentary evidence that 
should be in Ireland has been destroyed, 
some say as part of a preconceived scheme 
always followed by the victorious party, 
as well now as in those early days, for no 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

sooner does the Italian get a landing on 
the Irish shore than we hear of his destroy- 
ing the books and manuscripts of the Irish 
Druids as if they were of no value, and 
nothing fit to be preserved by mankind, 
but the peculiar ideas of which he pretended 
to have a monopoly. Ages later we find 
the Danes resorting to the same custom 
of destroying manuscripts and relics for 
some mysterious purpose, and sparing 
nothing that was sacred in the eyes of the 
people, while at a still later date we find 
the English nation in the same roll and 
proclaiming aloud to the world as a divine 
mission from the Almighty God, that they 
must destroy everything, belonging to the 
Celtic race, that they cannot steal for them- 
selves, on the plea that to them as his 
chosen people belong the entire earth, but 
to the Irish Celt not one foot of ground ; 
and strange to say apologists who pre- 
tended to be Celts, endorsed this wonder- 
ful dogma, and taught that the Celtic 
mission was to spread civilization and 
humanity wherever man could be found. 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

It was thus from the earhest period of 
which we have any knowledge until we 
come to the period of Columbcille, who 
has been styled by some the "Dove", and 
by others the ''Prop" or "Corner Stone" 
of the Church. We are inclined to agree 
with the latter idea for the reason that in 
his day and for ages afterwards, the laws 
and regulations laid down by him were 
strictly adhered to, both in Ireland and 
the various places over which this partic- 
ular order claimed any jurisdiction. Hap- 
pily, we do not need to depend upon Irish 
authority alone for this, as we have ample 
proof of it in Scotland and the continent 
of Europe, over which he and his immediate 
disciples traveled, with cross in hand, con- 
verting the barbarous inhabitants, while 
their co-patriots ventured on the ocean, 
and have the glory of discovering ignorant 
peoples, and the consolation of reducing 
them to their own faith Or civilization. 

About the year 565 A. D., (Aois AnTig- 
earna), finding themselves at the court of 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Brudeus, king of the Picts, in presence of 
the Chief of the Orcades or Western Isles, 
Columbcille took occasion to recommend 
to the latter, some of his monks who were 
exploring upon the ocean. "Some of us", 
said he to Brudeus, ''have lately emigrated 
with the hopes of finding desert countries 
in the impenetrable seas; perhaps after a 
long voyage they arrived at the Orcadian 
Isles. Make now some pressing recommen- 
dations to this chief, whom thou hast as 
a hostage in thy power, to the end that he 
may not do us any injury within the limits 
of his territories." 



L^-*^^ 



'^*«««^- 



CHAPTER II. 

CONDLA THE BEAUTIFUL. 

Their immediate successor followed 
their example, and continued their voy- 
ages until the following centuries, when 
the movement of emigration became more 
marked. Bernard in his "Life of Mal- 
achy," writes: "These swarms of holy 
Irish monks have placed themselves among 
all strange nations, one might say an in- 
undation;" and Strabo, writing in the 
ninth century, as quoted by Montelambert, 
says: "The custom of exploring on the sea 
has become a second nature with the Irish. 
They despise the dangers of the deep, 
emigrate almost entire with their troops 
of philosophers and descend upon our 
shores." Their object was education and 
equality, the two cardinal pillars of Celtic 
civilization, and here we cannot help con- 
trasting these with the selfishness, which 



7 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

induces the civilized plunderers of the 
modern day to follow in the wake of the 
lackadaisical missionary. 

These troops of philosophers who are 
here mentioned, not without a shade of 
irony, were organized into confraternities 
of twelve from the earliest period of which 
we have any record, and was the general 
arrangement in the time of Columbcille, 
whose successors carried out the general 
designs that he had marked for them to 
follow. They called those groups, Cul- 
dees, which means, according to some 
writers, Cultores Dei; that is workers in 
divine things, or pious learning, but we are 
inclined to think the word comes from the 
Celtic word "Coll" a wood, a grove, and 
very aptly had reference to the custom of 
those men, both officiating and teaching 
in the sacred groves, the arrangement of. 
whose trees had been so complete and beau- 
tiful that it was copied ages afterwards into 
stone and marble, and is presented to us 
to-day in what is known as the Gothic 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

style of architecture, but which is in reahty 
a reproduction of the grove where the 
Celtic druid preached and taught ages 
before the Goths had assembled into human 
societies. In several places they were 
called Papae, which comes from an Irish 
word "Puppa" a teacher or one who had 
a knowledge of books. 

Either Columbcille or some earlier chief 
had prescribed a white tunic and this they 
most scrupulously adhered to wherever 
they went for ages afterwards. Their 
tonsure or manner in which the hair was 
shaved was different also from what they 
were pleased to call the Italian, Jewish or 
Eastern tonsure, and their mode and time 
of celebrating Easter, was entirely at vari- 
ance with that then in vogue, only in a few 
places on the European continent. 

We shall not trace, here, the wanderings 
of the Irish Papae or teachers across bar- 
barous Europe, to the shores of the Med- 
iterranean Sea, and will follow them, only, 
in the direction of the Atlantic, and the 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Western regions, where they made import- 
ant discoveries, and founded several 
colonies. 

These voyages belong to two different 
epochs. The first, all of tradition, but 
of a persistent tradition, is marked by leg- 
ends of either Pagan or Christian origin, 
while the second rests upon witnesses more 
authentic and is marked by the voyages 
of these Culdees or Papae in the Atlantic 
Ocean, and by the colonization of Irland 
It Mikla or Greater Ireland. 

The first of these daring Irish of whom 
either legend or history has preserved a 
name, was called "Condla the Beautiful." 
The story is preserved in a manuscript 
of the year i,ooo A. D. (Aois An Tigearna), 
called "Leabhar na Huidre" and has been 
translated for several societies. The last 
edition for the "Review of the History of 
Religions" in 1883, under the title of "The 
Transatlantic Elysium and Western Eden," 
being the most exhaustive and closely con- 
nected with our present subject. 



10 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

This Condla was the son of Conn, who 
was king of Ireland from 123 to 157, A. D., 
and relates that one day being alone with 
his father on the summit of Uisneac, a 
woman appeared to them who said she 
had come from the "Land of Youth," 
where no one knew death or evil, and where 
all are continually in luxury and happiness. 
She invited him to visit her there, where he 
could enjoy communion with those frec- 
kled-skinned beauties, whose beautiful eyes 
and vermilion cheeks were a delight, and 
where he would lose none of his youth or 
beauty until the "Day of Judgment." 

The old king called a council of his 
druids, and demanded an explanation of 
the witcheries of this fair unknown, whose 
voice he heard, but whose form was in- 
visible to him, and all the knowledge he 
could glean was that she had presented his 
favorite son with a beautiful apple, a 
sample product of the Western Eden, and 
we are told that Condla fell as Adam did, 
for this Celtic fairy was more captivating 



II 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

than Eve was, and used all the arts of 
coquetry to entice him to visit that land be- 
yond the seas where such pleasures and 
luxuries awaited him. 

The interview affected him sorely, for 
upon her departure, after giving him the 
magic apple which was always intact, he 
grew melancholy and acted a good deal like 
one of our modern heroes who, failing to 
navigate the seas of love resolve to commit 
suicide. This condition so alarmed his 
royal father, that he demanded an ex- 
planation, and was told by the youth that 
the cause of his grief was this beautiful 
damsel from the Western Eden; that he 
loved his country and its people, but that 
his heart had gone over the seas with this 
strange fairy, and that he could find no 
peace without following also, in the path 
she had marked out. 

During this interview, he could hear 
someone whisper into his ear, "Thou 
beautiful, silly, Celtic youth, I know you 
are sad, but I know also the cause of your 



12 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

sadness. To be relieved you must be 
united with me in my Crystal Curragh, 
and before yonder sun goes down we will 
be resting in the land of Boadog, the Eden 
of the West." Scarcely had she finished 
her magic whisper when Condla threw 
himself into her canoe and was lost to his 
father and his country forever. 

Some no doubt will deny that such an 
event could occur, that it was only in the 
East that wonders, miracles and ghosts 
appeared, but let us say to those, if the Irish- 
man is called upon to believe without ques- 
tion stories of strange things happening in 
the East is it not natural and logical that 
he should ask that similar and parallel 
stories of ghosts, miracles and wonders be 
believed by others as happening on the 
sacred soil of Ireland ? If we admit the 
truth of one how can we deny the logic of 
the other, and as to its legendary feature, 
do we not find the exact counterpart hap- 
pening to-day, when princes and youths 
of so called noble blood, desert the faded 



13 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

traditions of Europe and the East, for 
some fair American, if not for perpetual 
youth, at least to bolster up a falling dyn- 
asty or preserve a patent of nobility, and 
an ancestral home by hard American dol- 
lars, wheat, oil, sweet apples or fat pork. ? 
This legend was well known in Ireland, 
and is to-day to all readers of Irish 
literature, though modified by the different 
civilizations from then till now. The 
foundation, however, remains the same; 
always pointing to a voyage by sea west- 
ward, in search of a marvellous land, to 
which the Irish were always attracted 
with singular facility, regardless of the 
distance or the difficulty of the enterprises. 



14 



CHAPTER III. 

CUCHULLIN. 

Champion of the Red Branch Knights 
OF Ulster. 

The next legend bearing upon our sub- 
ject is that of Cuchullin the famous royal 
athlete and champion of the Red Branch 
Knights of Ulster. Here the legend re- 
lates to a country situated to the west of 
the great ocean, and called the ''Valley of 
Delicacies." Here in this "Fairy Plain" 
could be found trees always laden with 
fruit and some of this fruit of enormous 
size, while some were covered with silver, 
that glittered like the rays of the sun. 
Scattered through the vale were fountains 
which recalled the cornucopia of classical 
antiquity, or, if shaded over, would suggest 
the idea that Gambrinus was anticipated, 
and that some genial spirit had built a 



15 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

primeval brewery to which the gods and 
spirits had descended to quench their 
thirst with the delicious nectar of the plain. 
But its greatest attraction was its beau- 
tiful women, the most resplendent of 
whom was Fand, the daughter of Aid 
Arbhal, who, being forsaken by her spouse, 
MacNanain, set out to find him, and on 
her journey had heard of the achievements 
of Cuchullin, of whom she became enam- 
ored, and immediately offered him the 
place left vacant by the absent MacNanain. 
Celtic chivalry in those days demanded 
that a gentleman must not refuse a lady's 
request, be the consequences what they 
may, so regardless of the fact that he had 
a wife and mistress of his own, he decides 
to cross the sea, live in the Vale of Delica- 
cies, wed the beautiful Fand, and then re- 
turn to his own country and his first 
wife, the beautiful and jealous Emer, but in 
company with the beautiful flower which 
he had taken with him from the West. 
The two rivals meet, perhaps the two most 



i6 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

attractive women of an age, fertile in beau- 
tiful women, but sensible, as they were, 
instead of coming to blows, as their 
civilized sisters would do to-day, they 
embrace one another, and are both lavish in 
generosity. All is well until the unfaithful 
MacNanain returns from a trip further 
West, where he had been detained, to 
seek his bride, the beautiful Fand, and 
Cuchullin, who cannot console himself at 
her departure, drinks a magic beverage 
which lulls him into forgetfulness. 

Other voyages and adventures of Cuchul- 
lin in this direction are recorded in Leabhar 
Na h-Uidhre, in Windisch' Irish Texts, 
in the Atlantis of July, '58 to January, '59, 
and in Beauvais' Transatlantic Elysium. 

Another hero of Irish legend appears 
to have more voluntarily accommodated 
his life to the new situation. He was 
Laogaire, the son of Crimthan Cas, king 
of Connaught. He embarked and crossed 
the seas to succor his friend Fiacha mac 
Retach, king of the Sidhs, from whom he 



17 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

obtained as a reward his beautiful daughter 
with whom he retired into Dun Magh 
Mealla or the Fortress in the Plains of 
Honey. After sojourning here for some 
time he returned to his native country, 
where he found that his father had decreed 
that he must never again leave his people 
to wander into the Western wilds. Lao- 
gaire remained deaf to all supplications 
and replied to his father when offering to 
abdicate in his favor, "That just one night 
among the Sidhs was better than a life- 
time in the paternal kingdom." This whole 
story may be found in the Book of Leinster, 
edited some time ago by Dr. Atkinson, 
whose untiring efforts have placed within 
the reach of Gaelic readers some of those 
treasures of their native tongue, which 
has lain dormant for centuries. 

But the Magh Mealla is not the only 
land spoken of in Irish legends. O' Curry 
tells us of another land, just as marvellous 
visited by the Fianns, the heroes of Os- 
sianic poetry, whose name is usurped by 



i8 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

the modern Fenians through the agency 
of John O'Mahoney. The Fianns were 
the enemies of the Danaans, and have 
united to expel them from the country, 
and have compelled them to seek a refuge 
on the other side of the Atlantic. The 
Danaans although settled in their new 
home, have not forgotten the old soil, and 
revisit it occasionally to vindicate their 
explusion upon the Fianns, but as they 
were magicians they have recourse to 
miserable artifice to satiate their vengeance. 
One of them, Avarta, metamorphised as 
a pirate, concealed himself under the 
name of Giolla Deacair, and entered the 
service of the chief of the Fianns, Fionn 
Mac'Cumhaill, whom Macpherson immor- 
talized centuries later under the name of 
Fingal. 

One day he enticed into his suite fifteen 
of the Fianns, compelled them to enter a 
magic curach that travelled fleeter than 
the wind, and crossed the seas. The 
waves fled before them, and soon they 



19 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

landed in the grand Western Country 
where the Danaans awaited them. Fionn, 
aided by two vaHant champions, Feredith 
and Folt Leabhar, sped in their pursuit, 
and travelled through tempest and dark- 
ness upon the ocean until they reached a 
perpendicular rock, the summit of which 
was lost in the clouds. Fionn attempted 
to climb it and mounted upon a shady 
plateau, in the middle of which rolled a 
fountain guarded by a giant. After many 
extraordinary adventures, he was forced 
to take to the sea again, and wander from 
isle to isle, until they finish by finding 
Avarta and rescuing their compatriots. A 
fuller account may be found in O'Curry's 
Mss. Materials, or in the "Adventures of 
Giolla Decair" lately published, where we 
read that the rescued comrades were not 
inclined to return home without seeing 
more of the beauty and delight of the coun- 
try which made such a vivid impression on 
the minds of all, that must be satisfied by 
other visits at a later period. 



20 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Early in the second century, of the pres- 
ent era, the fame of the Western Eden was 
so well known throughout Ireland, that 
the reigning prince himself, Ossian, the 
son of Fionn, concluded his life was not 
worth living unless he had seen with his 
own eyes this beautiful country, and tasted 
of its honeyed delicacies. His visit to the 
Western World and its marvels have 
charmed every generation down to the 
present, and while travelers may describe 
the real beauties of America of the eigh- 
teenth, nineteenth, or twentieth centuries, 
still the wanderings of Ossian in the West- 
ern Eden, his famous Tir Na-N-og will 
ever be considered by Irishmen as a classic, 
a foundation from which the real miracles 
have been wrought, that resulted in the 
discovery of the America of the fifteenth 
century. 



21 



CHAPTER IV. 
TIR NA-N-OG. 
"Land of Perpetual Youth." - 

About the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, a bard by the name of Michael 
Comyn, blended the old Pagan traditions 
and Christian legends of this famous man 
and produced a poem of which the princi- 
pal episode is Tir Na-N-og, or the "Land 
of Perpetual Youth". Ossian, blind and 
old, but having still preserved the belief 
in the divinities of his youth, and the ideal 
Celtic worship of Equality, Virtue and 
Courage, is honored by Patrick the national 
saint of Ireland, who kindly condescends 
to converse with the ancient bard, because 
all the writers of this and earlier periods 
never fail to represent the foreigner in Ire- 
land, as superior to the native Celt. Then 
the representative of Druid ism or Celtic 



22 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Civilization, and the champion of Itahan- 
EngHsh Christianity engage in a terrible 
controversy. The aged Ossian cannot 
control his fury, but the cunning Anglo- 
Italian soothes him by asking him to nar- 
rate a part of his past history, and the Celtic 
hero could not resist the pleasure of imag- 
ining himself on the scene in those happy 
days when he was young and full of ardor. 
Ossian says that one day when finding 
himself with his father Fionn, he saw ap- 
proaching them a young woman of marvel- 
lous beauty. She called herself Niamh of 
the Golden Hair, and said she had come 
from the great land of the West, Tir Na- 
N-og. "It is the most delightful country 
that exists," said she, '^and the most won- 
derful in the world; there the trees are 
laden with fruits and flowers; there honey 
and wine are in abundance. Once there 
thou shalt fear neither death nor infirmity; 
thou shalt live in luxury, joy and happiness. 
Thou shalt listen continually to the most 
exquisite music of concordant harps, and 



23 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

shalt have silver, gold, jewels, and swords, 
with thousands of nameless pleasures for 
which the human heart has sighed." 

Without more ado, Ossian accepted the 
invitation of Niamh, and after bidding his 
father, Fionn, and his son, Oscar, farewell, 
he set our for Tir Na-N-og. Niamh be- 
came his spouse and bore him three chil- 
dren, but after a joyous existence of three 
centuries, he grew tired of all, even of hap- 
piness, and wished to return once more to 
his own beloved Ireland. She consented 
to his departure, but on condition that he 
should not dismount from his horse, else 
he would become affected like all mortals 
and crumble into dust. 

Ossian accepted these conditions and 
departed, but when he disembarked in Ire- 
land his disappointment was great; no- 
body knew him; all the Fianns were dead, 
and briars and thistles grew upon the site 
of his ancient residence in Almhuin. At 
this moment several men called him to 
their aid where they were crushed by a 



24 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

large flat stone which had fallen upon them. 
Ossian, without descending from his horse 
extended his hand to aid them, but the 
girth of his saddle breaking he was thrown 
to the earth, and became at once old, frail 
and blind. For a more comprehensive ac- 
count of this beautiful legend the reader 
may consult any of the following works, 
"Ossian in the land of Perpetual Youth," 
edited by O'Looney in 1859, and lately re- 
printed for the Celtic Union, and translated 
into the French by Beauvais for his " Trans- 
atlantic Eden" while the Scotch have it 
under the titles of " Ossian and the Clyde." 
'' Fingal in Ireland" and "Ossian Historical 
and Authentic" published in Glasgow in 

1875- 

Tir Na-N-og or as some prefer to call 
it the "Fountain of Perpetual Youth", 
has, since Ossian, been celebrated several 
times, and the different writers who have 
recounted this legend have always placed 
it in the West. 

These stories, though marvellous to us 



25 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

to-day, so impassionated not only the early 
Irish, but even other Europeans, for we 
find as late as the sixteenth century, a 
learned Spaniard, John de Solis, who ought 
to have been well informed by the experi- 
ence of his own countrymen and contemp- 
oraries, set out for the conquest of this 
region, this "Land of Perpetual Youth." 
Assuredly, all these early legends are 
strange and perhaps a little fabulous, but 
yet we must not treat them lightly. The 
characters may have been invented, but 
at an age when the marvellous was accepted 
by intelligence, while races now cultured 
were at that time only evolving into their 
infancy from barbarism, and had yet to 
evolve still further into the family of na- 
tions; and while those adventures of this 
early period and the manner of their re- 
cital may seem incredible to us, looking 
back through the mists of centuries, still 
the effect, in all these past ages, was the 
persistent belief in a great Western land 
beyond the ocean, and the frequency of the 



26 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

relations which existed between the Irish 
and the inhabitants of this transatlantic 
world. 



27 



CHAPTER V. 
Adventures of the Middle Ages. 

The Middle- Age legends which now re- 
main to be examined, are equally full of 
extraordinary events, and the heroes who 
took part in those exploits are perhaps, 
imaginary also, but yet they confirm the 
reality of the voyages undertaken by the 
early Irish, in the direction of the West, 
and for this reason they merit from us a 
strict examination. 

Brendan is the hero of those legends. 
The recital of his adventures was widely 
circulated in the Middle Ages, not only in 
Ireland, but throughout Europe; and thus 
he contributed to turn public attention 
towards those Western seas, where already 
certain savants had placed the terrestrial 
Paradise. His adventures were recounted 
by the Gauls, the Normans, the English, 
the French, the Germans, and the 



28 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Spaniards, and were carried still further East 
to the regions bordering on the Bosphorus 
and the Black Sea. Several of these leg- 
ends can be found in the Bollandist Col- 
lection, Palme Edition; some in the Latin 
Legend of Brendan, published by Jubinal 
at Paris, in 1836; a few in the Percy Society 
publications of London, 1S34. Reeves 
quotes a number in his Lives of the Cam 
bro-British saints of the fifth and sixth 
centuries. Schroeder and Suchier have col- 
lected them for the German people, while 
T. Moran has rendered them into Latin for 
the Irish people, so that they might the 
more easily understand them(?); but per- 
haps no one has presented the facts so 
clear and elaborate as Gafferel in the 
''Marvellous Voyages of Brendan and the 
Celtic Papae in the Atlantic during the 
Middle Ages." 

Raoul Glaber tells us that in the time of 
King Robert who died in 1030, A. D., 
the French placed the most absolute con- 
fidence in the history of the discoveries 



29 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

of Brendan in the Western World as taught 
in France and throughout Europe by the 
hordes of Irishmen who were then teaching 
in Europe and scattering the beauties of 
Celtic Civilization among its barbarous 
inhabitants. In France those voyages be- 
came the subjects of their national and 
popular poetry as we find in the Roman 
Du Renard. 

"Je fat savoir Ion lai Breton 
Et de Merlin, et de Faucon 
Del Roi Artur, et de Tristan 
Del chievrefol, de Saint Brendan.' 

It is therefore indispensable to know the 
legend that exercised such an influence 
upon his contemporaries as would induce 
them to follow his example, and as it stood 
so many editions in those early times, it is 
well fit for another recital in this the twen- 
tieth century. 



30 



CHAPTER VI. 

Biography of St. Brendan. 

Brendan was an Irishman. The Bol- 
landists fix the date of his birth at the year 
460, A. D. In his early years he was 
placed in charge of a good woman, the 
chief of one of those institutions for which 
Ireland was remarkable from the earliest 
ages and which were very popular in Ire- 
land at the dawn of the period known in 
Europe as the Christian Era. When a 
man, he entered ecclesiastical orders and 
established monasteries in his territory, 
the most important of which was Clonfert 
in Connaught, where he, being of noble 
family, assumed chief control. His com- 
munity consisted of three thousand, all de- 
voted to the arts of peace and production in 
the midst of a warlike community. Two 
of his disciples, Fursa and Machuta be- 
came afterwards bishops in Peronne and 



31 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

St. Malo, in France, where they were se- 
lected by the people among whom they 
preached the grand truths of Celtic civil- 
ization, and whom they brought from 
ignorance to an enlightened stage. 

Thus we can see that the Ireland of those 
days was the centre from which emanated 
the learning and religion of Europe, for 
not only do we find our countrymen going 
West on the Atlantic, but also do we find 
them in every continental city of any con- 
sequence, teaching and lecturing, combat- 
ing the heretical and erroneous opinions 
of the times, and laying the foundations of 
learning and advancement among those 
European communities which were then 
emerging from the Kimmerian darkness, 
where they revelled for centuries before. 

Brendan's reputation for sanctity and 
wisdom was so well known that European 
clerics came and submitted to him grave 
and disputed questions of conscientious 
guilt. In fact his school was the Supreme 
Court of his day, from whose decisions 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

there was no appeal, for the name Irish in 
those early days carried with it all the at- 
tributes that to-day constitute an educated 
man, and on the contrary to say that a man 
was educated, was tantamount to saying 
that he was either an Irishman or had been 
to the Irish schools for his learning and 
knowledge. 

But there was a greater destiny before 
him, and like all lovers of the curious, 
he wondered what new ideas the Western 
world could unfold, and as in a later day 
Napoleon had wished to possess himself 
of the Kremlin, the palace of the Caesars, 
so at this early stage Brendan had wished 
to follow the footsteps of his countrymen, 
Condla, Laogaire, Fionn and Ossian, and 
give their descendants the benefit of his 
counsel and advice, or implant among 
them, what was already being scattered 
broadcast through Europe, the seeds of 
Celtic Civilization. 

Brendan had been preceded by a brother 
monk, named Mernoc, and by one of his 



33 



V 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

former teachers Barinta. Mernoc had in- 
stalled himself on an island in the distant 
ocean and had under his control a colony 
or community of monks. When he re- 
turned to Ireland, he related that on one 
occasion he was absent from his home, 
being detained in the woods for some days, 
and when he returned the air was impreg- 
nated with an odor that lasted for several 
days. Here we must remark, that when 
Lescarbot a thousand years afterwards, 
was describing the first voyage of Colum- 
bus, he either plagiarizes Mernoc, or else 
actually met those zephyrs, loaded with 
perfume, for he says, "We have come to a 
land where the odors excel in sweetness, 
and are borne on a Southern wind, so 
abundant that all the Orient could not 
produce a parallel. W^e stretched out our 
hands to take them as if they were 
tangible." 

We must here remark about the persist- 
ence of thite odor; for all the ancient 
voyagers are unanimous in speaking of the 



34 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

perfumed air of tropical America. In the 
first voyage of Columbus, October i8, 1492, 
"The air was as sweet as in Andulusia." 
"It was a pleasure to respire this air, which 
was truly embalmed." Verrazona had re- 
marked, "These perfumed breezes which 
announced the proximity of the American 
continent"; and Barlow, in his description 
of the Carolinas in 1584, says, "We smelled 
so sweet and strong a smell, as if we had 
been in the midst of some beautiful garden, 
abounding in all kinds of odoriferous 
flowers." 

But Mernoc had not forgotten his native 
land which he occasionally revisited. In 
one of his voyages, he persuaded his master 
Barinta to accompany him, and placed him 
in a barque enveloped in mist so thick, that 
the voyagers could not distinguish the poop 
from the prow. Barinta describes this 
visit, and says that the sun dissipated the 
clouds, and soon after, they beheld towards 
the West a great island on which they en- 
tered. After fifteen days travelling across 



35 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

a beautiful country, amongst fragrant 
flowers and trees laden with fruit, it ap- 
peared they were still only in the middle 
of the island, and prepared to cross a large 
river which rolled from the West towards 
the East, when an angel appeared to them 
and bade them turn back, saying that Par- 
adise began from this side of the stream. 

They retraced their steps and soon Bar- 
inta returned to his home in Ireland, where 
the recital of his adventures and journey 
so inflamed the minds of those who heard 
him, that soon a company of one hundred 
monks, were resolved to tempt the dangers 
of the deep, and establish themselves in 
this Western Eden. 

Brendan was the leader in this expedition, 
but owing to the inexperience of the crew, 
it proved a failure, and they returned with- 
out locating Mernoc and his community 
of monks. Undaunted by failure, Bren- 
dan resolved a second time, and took with 
him only fourteen of his former comrades, 
with provisions for forty days and a light 



36 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

boat, whose framework was covered with 
skins of animals sewed together At the 
moment of their departure three brothers 
joined them, in spite of the remonstrances 
of Brendan and his sad presentiments. 

For fifteen days the wind blew steadily 
from the East, when it suddenly fell, com- 
pelling the monks to resort to the oars to 
propel the vessel. In this extremity it 
took all the genius and patience of Bren- 
dan to encourage them, especially as their 
provisions were giving out fast. However, 
at the end of a month, they reached a large 
island where they went ashore and found 
a deserted mansion, which showed signs 
of Eastern civilization, for it contained a 
table and some furniture, if these be re- 
garded as of Eastern origin. Lying around 
were several pieces of shining gold, and 
one of the monks, more selfish than his 
kind, took a lump of the tempting metal, 
and was punished by death. This so 
alarmed the others that they took to sea 
again, and soon reached another land 



37 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

where they saw a number of strange white 
animals grazing, about the size of an ox. 
The inhabitants of this island were very 
hospitable as one of them brought the 
wanderers some food and caused them to 
be sprinkled with water on their departure. 



3^ 



CHAPTER VII. 
Legends of the First Voyage. 

After a few days they find themselves 
in view of an isolated island which ap- 
peared to them a convenient place to take 
their repast and rest from sailing. Scarce- 
ly had they lighted a fire when the island 
began to move, and what they had taken 
for a solitary rock was in effect a fish, per- 
haps one of those monsters whose species 
has perished in the course of nature's 
evolutions. This fish story may appear 
strange to us to-day in this enlightened 
twentieth century, but Fournavat, writing 
from a manuscript of the tenth century, 
refers to this island fish, in his ''Bestiare 
d'Amour"; so does La Croix in his 
''Science of the Middle Ages", and as late 
as the year 1530, Landrin in his "History 
of Marine Monsters" quotes no less a 
personage than the Bishop of Nidros, Eric 



39 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Falkendorf, who, writing to Pope Leo X., 
described a similar occurrence. Whether 
he was quoting from Brendan or reciting 
his actual experience the reader must judge 
for himself. He says: "Wishing to cele- 
brate Mass in some place besides on board, 
we disembarked upon an island which sunk 
as soon as the Sacrifice was finished." In 
passing, let us say that the story is no more 
improbable than the story of Jonah and his 
whale ; if we believe one, how can we doubt 
the other ; or if we doubt one who can ask 
us to swallow the other. 

Some days after this, Brendan landed 
on a beautiful island, where they were 
astonished at the beauty and familiarity of 
the birds, and he says that some of them 
could talk. To the Irish monks it looked 
miraculous and they named it the "Para- 
dise of Birds." No one would believe that 
St. Francis D 'Assise would repeat an old 
story of the fifth century, or that he would 
misrepresent what he saw ; yet, still his ac- 
count of the famous swallows that perched 



40 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

upon his shoulders and head, so familiar 
to us in that beautiful painting, is only 
another link in the chain of evidence that 
Brendan and his companions visited those 
islands. 

Let us here remark that the navigators 
who discovered the Azores, at a compara- 
tively modern period, were astonished at 
the number and familiarity of the birds in 
this group of islands, and called them 
Azores from the Portugese word Acor, a 
bird. The chart of Gabriel de Valesquc 
composed in 1439, and upon which this 
archipeligo appears calls it Ylha de Oesels. 
Fructuoso in his chronicle goes into ecstasy 
when relating of the delicious melody that 
he always heard in the woods of San 
Miguel. He recounts with a charming 
simplicity which recalls the Irish legend, 
that he assisted at a concert, the principal 
characters of which were larks, canaries, 
blackbirds and turtle doves. A great deal 
more on this subject can be seen in 
Avezac's account of the "Discoveries 



41 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

made in the Atlantic Ocean, during the 
Middle Ages." 

The companions of Brendan withdrew 
themselves with difficulty from those del- 
icacies, and returned to their vessels, from 
which they next landed on the Isle of 
Albaeus, where one of Ireland's famous 
apostles Ailbe of Emly had secluded him- 
self with his companions. When they 
landed on this island they were met by an 
old man, one of their countrymen, who 
said nothing but made signs for them to 
follow him. They soon reached a mon- 
astery, where they found twenty-four 
monks, two groups of twelve each, their 
own kindred, who for years had maintained 
a marvellous silence. They wanted for 
nothing, however, and Brendan says: 
"Even the very lights sprang up spontan- 
eously. "Can it be possible that these Celtic 
apostles had investigated electricity, and 
harnessed the magnetic fluid, centuries be- 
fore Edison came on earth? Quite pos- 
sible, and very probable, for those stories 



42 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

were written and related as an every-day 
occurrence, when there could be no object 
in claiming a patent or deceiving anybody, 
and we have no doubt they only related 
what they saw. In revisiting the Paradise 
of Birds to celebrate their Celtic festival 
of Caisg, now Easter, they found in one 
place a dead calm sea, and in another, ice 
blocks which offered great resistance, but 
still for the five years that they wandered 
this beautiful country they were always in 
this Paradise, with the birds, at the period 
when it was the Equinox of Spring, and 
the day and night were equal all over the 
world. 

In a later age we find references to the 
same and similar experiences in the chiv- 
alrous romances of the Frenchman, Roman 
De la Charette, Chanson D'Antioch, and 
one writer, Francisque Michel, who wrote 
between the years 896-9, A. D. The ac- 
counts they gave of the wild birds and 
other animals met with were exactly as the 
Spanish and Portugese explorers described 



43 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

them in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies almost a thousand years after those 
Irish monks had dared to Hft the veil of 
ocean and bring back to the then barbar- 
ous Europe the knowledge of land still 
further west on the other shores of the 
broad Atlantic. 

It was those Celts who first described 
the Griffon, that peculiar species of bird, 
so powerful that it lifted vessels in the air 
with the merciless grasp of its talons, and 
then let them fall upon the rocks to be 
shattered into pieces; or dashed up against 
them in an attempt to seize them, when it 
is immediately killed by another bird, 
more powerful and of a fiercer nature. 
Another day an enormous fish would dash 
against them, and attempt to devour them, 
only to be killed himself by another marine 
beast more monstrous still. This fish 
was so large that it furnished food for the 
wanderers for three months. 

After several days they reach an island 
where they are not allowed to land. 



44 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

although they understand the language of 
the people, who were chanting and singing 
the music of their own country. They were 
directed to an island further south where 
they land and in a country covered with 
forests, find vines loaded with grapes, 
from which is emitted a most delicious 
odor, as if from a room full of apples. 
This incident which we have already shown 
in the history of Mernoc appears to indicate 
that the pious explorers were now near the 
American Tropics. In this vicinity they 
passed through a sea whose waters were so 
transparent, that they could see plainly the 
huge fishes which sported at an enormous 
depth below. 

Soon the tempest drifted them into a 
place which they considered the entrance 
to the infernal regions. The picture drawn 
by those early dreamers of what they act- 
ually saw was so vivid and awful that any- 
one who has compared it and Dante's 
Inferno will have no hesitation in saying that 
the Italian only copied vaguely from the 



45 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

original drawn by the Irish monks cen- 
turies before, from the real panorama as 
they beheld it while riding upon the crest of 
the Atlantic wave. They imagined they 
saw Vulcan erect before them, perhaps 
Hecla or the Mt. Beerenberg of Jean 
May en, who made the sea boil at a dis- 
tance and filled the atmosphere with a 
sulphurous vapour, while th6 neighboring 
islands resounded under the hammer of 
the gigantic Cyclops, the famous GoU 
MacMorna, of the early Celt. They met 
demons who submitted them to a thousand 
proofs, but they surmounted all and after 
passing through the most dense fogs, they 
finally arrived at an island which they 
called the "Terrestrial Paradise." But 
this was an immense continent where they 
met the most varied productions, under an 
atmosphere through which the sun never 
ceased to shine. 

During forty days the monks endeavored 
to find the confines of this land which they 
took to be an island, until they arrived at 



46 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

the mouth of an immense river, which 
proved to them as the Orinoco did to 
Columbus, that the island was an immense 
continent. It was here that an angel or 
spectre appeared to them and ordered them 
to return to Ireland, which they did, not 
however, without having carried with them 
fruit and stone souvenirs of this Paradise, 
the residence of the saints, the Elysium, 
when the entire world will be converted or 
dead. 

Having celebrated their "Caisg" or 
Vernal equinox, for the last time in the 
Paradise of Birds, they return to their 
native country. Soon after their arrival 
Brendan died in his ninety-sixth year, in 
all the glory of sanctity and renown, after 
having spent the prime of his life in edu- 
cating his countrymen, and the declining 
years in spreading a knowledge of their 
civilization among the Atlantic and Western 
islands. 

His favorite disciple Machutu was not 
content to remain in Ireland, but made 



47 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

one other attempt to go West, with mes- 
sages from his Irish Alma Mater to her 
apostles in the Western seas. His vessel 
was driven by a storm from her path, and 
stranded on the coast of Armoric Gaul, in 
Finance, where he resolved to end his career, 
by accepting of their hospitality, and giv- 
ing them in return the benefit of his voyages 
and the learning for which Ireland was 
then so remarkable. They elected him 
bishop of the community, called their prin- 
cipal town by his name, and have jealously 
guarded his memory and traditions to this 
day in the town of St. Malo, while even at 
this distant date they preserved the lan- 
guage in which he addressed them, his 
own native, Celtic tongue. 



48 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Gleanings from the Early Ages. 

Such is the legend. It is not always told 
after the same fashion, but the differences 
only record different adventures, and al- 
ways point to one grand conclusion, the 
great discovery of a wonderful land beyond 
the Western horizon. But what surprises 
us most is the analogy that exists between 
this legend and Oriental traditions, and 
it would be very interesting to learn 
whether this legend passed from Ireland to 
the Orient or did the two peoples conceive 
it spontaneously. Renaud, in his "In- 
troduction to the Geography of Abelfonda" 
mentions these discoveries. Edrisi in his 
translation of Joubert, as the anonymous 
author of the " Marvellous Voyages" names 
the "Isle of Flocks" and the "Paradise of 
Birds," while in the "Thousand and One 
Nights" the famous Sinbad, in one of 



49 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

his numerous voyages lands on the isle 
El-Ghanamh, wher eare found enormous 
flocks of brebis. The bird called the Roc, 
which raises him into the air, strangely 
resembles the Gripha of Brendan, while 
the story of the island fish seems wonder- 
fully like the Jewish myth of Jonah and the 
whale. 

*'But the name Gripha is mentioned very 
often in early Irish romances and literature, 
and as it plays a very important part in 
the sacred rites and initiations in Persian 
mysteries and mystic orders, I will quote 
from "Richardson's Dissertations" on that 
subject: 

'In Fox's collection of Persic books, there 
is an illustrated copy of Ferdusi, containing 
a picture of the Gripha, which is there rep- 
resented as an ugly dragon-looking sort of a 
bird. This omniscient griffin, called Sim- 
orgh, who had existed through all the rev- 
olutions of ages, revealed to a hero, called 
Cahermann, that the first inhabitants of 
this earth were the Peris or good beings, 



50 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

and the Dives or wicked ones, (very similar 
to the Irish good and bad Fairies, the one 
inhabitating the air and upper realms 
while the others take charge of the infernal 
regions), who wage eternal war with each 
other, and though the former were the 
most powerful, their contests for superi- 
ority were sometimes so violent as to throw 
nature into convulsions and cover the uni- 
verse with dismay; that she, herself, wit- 
nessed seven creations and destructions of 
this world." 

We must not be surprised when told that 
the legend of Brendan found its way into 
the East, and was read everywhere during 
the Middle Ages, for did not the adven- 
tures of Ulysses charm the Greeks, and 
why should not we glory in the adventures 
and patience of our own countrymen? 
They may not have been all true, but the 
greater part of them have been verified, 
some to-day, and some a thousand years 
after their first recital, and who would not 
wish to retain those legends which have 



5^ 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA 

been verified, even they v^^ere forced to re- 
ject the Odyssee and other epics, with all 
the marvels and fables which ornament 
them. 

The learned savant who wrote the "His- 
tory of Ancient Alban," says, "It is a pious 
romance, but it rests upon a historic foun- 
dation, for why should these fabulous re- 
citals be interspersed in the biography of 
Brendan, if there had not been in the events 
of his life, a great enterprise for the exten- 
sion of his native Celtic civilization, into 
some far distant lands, and if he failed not 
to indicate that, by showing that he was 
there." The true or false courses only 
prove that they did not hesitate to under- 
take them; besides, the islands that they 
traveled on, the great continent upon which 
they disembarked ; the dangers, the adven- 
tures, all these episodes, we have no doubt, 
conceal under the veil of fiction, true 
discoveries. It is left for us however, to 
unravel the historic truth from the orna- 
mentation surrounding it. 



52 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

As we have already remarked, Brendan 
and his companions, always directed their 
course for the West, in the direction of 
America, passing by the Archipelagoes 
which we recognize as the Azores, the 
Canary and Madeira Islands, besides Ice- 
land and other groups lying between the 
two continents. The Paradise of Birds 
corresponds to one of the Azores. Tene- 
riffe in the Canaries is an ancient volcano, 
which, without doubt, was in activity when 
Brendan and his companions contemplated 
with awe the ebullitions of flame which 
crowned its summit, and the streams of 
lava which coursed along its sides. Be- 
sides the eruptions of Hecla, those of Beer- 
emberg are still active, and it is not amiss 
to say that the Irishman Brendan has 
explored as far as these northern latitudes. 
As to the terrestrial Paradise, so far away 
from Ireland, and watered by such ma- 
jestic rivers, the whole course of which the 
monks did not take time to trace or if they 
did have not recorded, would not this be 
the American continent? 

53 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

While it is not necessary to indicate lit- 
erally the exact geographical position of 
these marvellous voyages, it appears, never- 
theless, well established that they sailed 
to the West; that they discovered islands 
and landed on a continent; that at several 
times in the course of their voyages they 
met their own co-religionists, kinsmen and 
countrymen, which would prove to them 
that there were explorers and adventurers 
from Ireland long anterior to themselves. 



54 



CHAPTER X. 

Further Adventures of Celtic 
Explorers. 

We have it on the authority of the '' Book 
of Leinster" and quoted by O' Curry in his 
''Lectures," that Brendan, Mernoc and 
Machuta were not the only Irishmen who 
made explorations and voyages upon the 
Atlantic, during, and previous to the 
Middle Ages, of which early history, dis- 
figured at a later period by pious legend, 
has singularly preserved the remembrance. 
A curious account is preserved in the 
" Book of Leinster" of one " Conal Deagh" 
a wealthy resident of the province of Con- 
naught, who had three sons that followed 
the profitable occupation of pirates, which 
in those days was viewed in a different 
light to what it is to-day, for it combined 
the defence of the neighboring coasts with 
that of trade, and unlike the modern one. 



55 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

was considered a highly useful and 
respected occupation. Tired of trading 
along their own coasts, they resolved to 
venture further West, among the Atlantic 
islands, on what they called a pilgrimage. 
Their curachs were covered with skins, and 
large enough to contain each nine men, 
with provisions for a long voyage. They 
left Galway Bay sometime about the year 
540, A. D., (Aois an Tigearna), and after 
spending considerable time among their 
countrymen in the West, they were re- 
turning home, when they were ship- 
wrecked. A few of the survivors were cast 
on the shores of Spain. The bishop of the 
Spanish Community, being of their own 
race, and speaking their own or a kindred 
language, received them, and gave them all 
the assistance within his power. This 
bishop, Justin by name, afterwards related 
the occurrence as he had remembered it to 
the two Celtic or Irish saints, Coman and 
Mocholmog, the latter of whom was a poet, 
and to his verses to-day, preserved in the 



56 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

''Book of Leinster" are we indebted for 
the account of the wanderings of Irishmen 
on the Atlantic ocean at the period we men- 
tion, a thousand years before Columbus or 
any other European had conceived the 
daring idea of venturing from their native 
shores. 

Of all these accounts, there is, perhaps, 
none better known than the voyages of 
Maelduin, originally met with in Leabhar 
Na Huidri, and published by Joyce in his 
''Celtic Romances", while Arbois de Jub- 
ainville gives a French version of it in his 
' ' Epic Literature of Ireland . ' ' This Mael- 
duin was the son of Oliol Corac Ago, who 
was assassinated on some pretext by a 
band of sea rovers. As soon as Maelduin 
reached the age of manhood, and was in- 
stalled in his father's stead among his breth- 
ren, his first act was to seek reparation for 
the blood of his parent. He caused some 
large curachs to be built, each plated with 
iron and covered with ox hides, laid on in 
three layers. Each of those vessels 



57 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

contained sLxty men with stores of provisions 
and with this band of warriors he set out 
for the Western isles to vindicate the death 
of his parent. They reached an island 
where the inhabitants were acquainted 
with the story of his father's death, but 
could or would not give any intelligence 
of the actors in the tragedy. Along their 
way they met several islands and Maelduin 
left on account of his findings. 

In one place they found a splendid man- 
sion, after the manner of their own country, 
which was entirely devoted for the ac- 
commodation of strangers, for the tables 
and chairs were all set, and they found 
choice delicacies in abundance. Surround- 
ing the mansion was a beautiful orchard of 
apple and orange trees, laden with fruit of 
immense size, but what attracted the most 
attention was a lofty palace which was built 
entirely in a block of limestone, with no 
aperture but a single gate, and here again 
the hospitality was lavish, which showed 
from the descriptions they left at that early 



58 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

date, that they were well aware of the ex- 
istence of a world west of their own coun- 
try, and that considerable of their own 
kinsmen lived there, who were imbued 
with their own national ideas and customs, 
while their constant references to the mar- 
vels of Nature, such as the immense fruit 
and gigantic trees, large tracts of land and 
broad rivers, prove that they must have 
come upon American territory, and from 
their description of the hospitality of the 
inhabitants, that they were as humane 
and generous as themselves, or else were 
inspired by Celtic or a kindred civilization. 

Soon they reach what they called the 
"Isle of Tears and Laughter"; then the 
"Isle of the White and Black Sheep," 
which change their color when they change 
their flocks. In the "Isle of Amazons" 
they receive a most emphatic reception, 
but they repulse all matrimonial proposals. 

In the "Isle of Birds", all the tribe 
winged with different plumage, speak, 
sing, and jest. Here a hermit of their own 



59 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

kinsmen, related to them how the island 
upon which he was cast, by a tempest, 
grows larger and higher each year. Close 
by stands a colossal pillar, the base of 
which disappears below the water, while the 
summit is lost in the clouds. From this 
summit, juts out a conical net work of 
silver meshes, so very large that they are 
tempted to cut one as a memento which 
they bring with them to their native coun- 
try. They finally reach another island, 
where they find some very high mountains 
and great plains covered with heather. 
Here the young women ran to meet them 
and showed so much regard for them, as if 
they never wished them to depart, but 
Maelduin and his companions soon re- 
solved to leave this Transatlantic Elysium 
and return again to Ireland. 

On their homeward journey they met 
an island where the trees produced an 
intoxicating, though delicious beverage or 
milk, and dwelling upon this island were 
fifteen monks who had resolved to follow 



60 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Brendan, and make a pilgrimage upon the 
ocean . Among their possessions was a bag 
which belonged to the saint, and which 
they prized very much on account of its 
associations. In the middle of the island 
was a large lake which they told their coun- 
trymen, had the property of rejuvenation. 
One of the monks, more curious than the 
others, plunged himself in the clear waters, 
but whether this crystal Elixir proved equal 
to its reputation he does not tell us, but he 
announces that he had no suffering for the 
remainder of his life. 

The two last landing places of Maelduin 
were on an island where he met another 
pilgrim from his native land, a man who 
had at one time been a cook in one of the 
monasteries for which Tory Island was 
famous, in the days when Columba was the 
column or pillar of Celtic civilization. On 
another part of this island he was driven 
upon a rock, where he found hawks re- 
sembling those found along the cliffs over- 
hanging Clew and Galway Bays. 



6i 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Following the example of the hawks as 
they took wing eastward, Maelduin and 
his companions prepared to cross the At- 
lantic again for home, and soon arrived in 
their own beloved land, where among the 
national trophies at Cruachan, that great 
centre .of Irish education, they deposited 
the "mesh" the latest marvel from the 
Western World, where it continued to re- 
pose until the sacriligious hand of the 
Norman or the Dane snatched if from its 
resting place, to make room for the in- 
ferior and degrading civilizations of Eastern 
and Western Europe. 

Certain it is, that some of these recitals 
may appear fantastic, and even some of 
them, appear as imitations of the legends 
of Brendan, but some passages, however, 
merit consideration, as indicating a knowl- 
edge of the existence of the American 
Continent. 

The chanting birds singularly enough 
resemble the parrots of tropical America; 
the island that increases from year to year 



62 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

recalls the geological formation of the Ber- 
mudas, and some of the Antilles, while the 
persistence of these voyages in the direction 
of the West, and the constant meetings with 
their countrymen, all tend to show that 
Maelduin and his companions had not 
wandered into lands then unknown, but 
explored and peopled ih previous ages by 
their own kinsmen and co-religionists. 

His account of the talking birds was then 
considered a marvel, yet to-day we know 
it was possible. The great precision, with 
which they described islands and lands 
that have become since realized and ma- 
terial, causes us to wonder why it was, 
and is still, that those early voyagers got 
no credit for their just and unselfish dis- 
coveries, while those whose purposes were 
the most sordid, commercial and inhumane 
were undeservedly crowned by their own 
people, while we, the kinsmen of Brendan 
and Maelduin, are commanded, in this the 
twentieth century, by a usurped and spuri- 
ous civilization, to pay the stranger that 



63 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

homage and deference which of right be- 
longs to our ownTnation, and which, to 
our eternal disgrace, we are doing to bolster 
up the effete and presumptuous claims of 
South and Western Europe. 



64 



CHAPTER X. 

Knowledge the English and Spanish 

Sailors Gained by the Adventure 

OF Celtic Traditions. 

That those sailors who ventured from 
the Spanish and English shores in the 
fifteenth century were fully aware of the 
early voyages of the Irish, we will/;now 
show, and then use them to prove thei early 
ones of our countrymen. For this pur- 
pose we will take the traditions found 
among the kindred Celts of Europe. The 
French Celt had, perhaps, the closest con- 
nection and sympathy with the Irish, and 
though their monasteries were destroyed 
both before, during and after the Reforma- 
tion, first by the Italians, then by the pro- 
English party, of the Reform, still they 
dung to their ancient convictions with a 
tenacity that knew of no compromise but 
death. One writer sums the situation very 

6s 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

concisely when he tells us that "their man- 
uscripts and monuments have been scat- 
tered and destroyed, and nothing left or 
preserved but the sad traditions of their 
former glory." 

The Welch and Highland Scotch have 
each contributed their portion to our pres- 
ent theme, and have enabled our anti- 
quaries to arrange those transatlantic 
legends into four distinct series. 

The first relates to the country of the 
Sidhs, which is placed by the Bards and 
Druids of Britain to the west of the great 
ocean. In this respect the Celtic race 
owes a compliment to Mr. Nash in his 
treatment of the Bardic Mysteries and 
learned account of the Druids and Bards 
of Great Britain. But we must not forget 
the other noble Celts who have endeavored 
to place their race and nation in the fore- 
front of the world's civilizations, such as 
"Skeene" who brought into prominence 
the "Four Ancient Books of Wales," and 
the Scot Campbell who produced the 



66 



THE IRISH JN AMERICA. 

'Topular Tales of the West Highlands," 
while noble and devoted France, gave 
from the pen of Beauvais the "Western 
Eden," all of which make the fact, that the 
early Irish had certain knowledge of a great 
Western land, had their polar star, and 
did radiate from that point with not the 
slightest doubt of the contrary. 

The second series relates to the disap- 
pearance of a certain Gafran, son of Aldan, 
who with his companions and associates, 
in the fifth century of this present era, 
set sail for the "Great Green Land of 
Streams," and of which all trace was lost. 
The learned and patriotic Jones in his 
"Myrvyrian Archaeology" gives an elab- 
orate account of this period of Celtic ex- 
plorations, all of which he authenticates 
from the Ancient Manuscripts to which he 
had access. 

In the third and fourth series are re- 
lated all the incidents relating to King 
Arthur, and the enchanter Merlin, and for 
the information of our readers we may refer 



67 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

to the able and learned works of Michael 
and Wright on Merlin and the "Marvels 
of the Middle Ages" by Villamarque. 
From perusing these we find that it is, above 
all, in this great Western country where 
King Arthur shelters himself, and awaits 
the auspicious moment to attack and chase 
the vindictive Dane, the treacherous Saxon, 
and the cruel Italian, who have excited the 
anger of the Gallic bards and usurped the 
land and place which was once the cradle 
of the most humane, if not the greatest 
civilization that ever appeared upon this 
earth. 

This great Western country was named 
J by them "Avalon" or the "Isle of Apples" 
from a Celtic word Abhal, an apple; the 
ocean entirely surrounded the islands 
which had no evils. In it there were no 
thieves, no brigands, no enemies to set 
their snares for the unwary traveller; no 
violence, nor insupportable cold or heat; 
there peace, concord and a beautiful bloom 
was reigning eternally. In it the flowers. 



68 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

lilies, roses, violets, abounded; the trees 
bore fruit and flowers on the same branch 
and man knew neither age, malady nor 
grief; but with their youths and maidens 
lived in one grand community, where noth- 
ing was private property and no one man 
or set of men would or could say to another 
what they should do or accomplish. All 
were nature's children, born in the same 
manner, and for that reason, all must enjoy 
the fruits of nature's divinity to its fullest 
limits. Such, then, was the birthright of 
the Celt. Alas, what is it to-day? 



69 



CHAPTER XL 

St. Matthew of Finisterre in Search 
OF Jewish Patriarchs. 

It is in another marvellous country West 
of the Atlantic, that the Armoric monks 
of St. Matthevs^ of Finisterre, believed they 
could find the Jewish patriarchs Enoch 
and Elija, who, according to the French 
tradition, were there awaiting the day of 
final judgment. 

These monks explored the ocean, and 
on one occasion, they were carried so far 
beyond their course that it took them some 
three years to return home. It was on this 
occasion that they were driven on an island 
where they found their Irish co-religionists 
enjoying life and happiness in a manner 
peculiarly Celtic. On another island they 
met a brass statue ; it was that of a woman 
with uplifted hand and seemed to point out 
to them the course which they should 



70 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

follow. They went in that direction and to 
their great joy they discovered a mountain 
in the distance, but to their amazement, as 
they approached it, it emitted a marvellous 
odor, while its summit vomited forth flame 
in great volumes, and at a great distance 
could be seen the burning matter as it 
rolled down along the sides. 

Turning away from here they came to 
another island where they found neither 
men nor animals, but they met what seemed 
to them to be a fort or town, surrounded 
by a strong, high wall. Within they could 
see gold, silver and furniture, but no one to 
guard the treasures. They eventually set 
sail for France, and arrived home to find 
that no one knew them, that all the existing 
order of things as they left them had been 
changed, and nothing left to them but 
record the news they had got of what they 
considered the Transatlantic Eden, and 
embellish it where necessary with the 
Celtic idealism so proHfic in the race. 

Such are the legends, Pagan or Christian, 



71 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

by which the Irish have affirmed their 
belief in the existence of Transatlantic 
lands. It is not possible to give here all 
the episodes, nor is it necessary to give en- 
tirely these legends destined for the edi- 
fication or amusement of those who heard 
them retold, but as one of our antiquaries, 
who has done more for their preservation 
than any other man, has remarked in his 
"Manners and Customs:" ''These facts 
would be of great value if they had been 
transmitted to us in their original form; 
but in the course of ages, after having 
passed from narrator to narrator, each full 
of imagination, these legends have lost 
considerable of their original simplicity, 
and have become more and more orna- 
mented so as to make them appear fan- 
tastic and extravagant." 

The Frenchman, Beauvais, in his West- 
ern Eden, arguing along the same lines 
says of these early accounts, "It is thus 
that to-day, lovers of fiction, vulgarize 
science by placing it in imaginary and even 



72 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

incredible adventures. If adorned by this 
romantic garb, their lives came to be re- 
membered only in some work of fiction, 
some shipwreck of human knowledge as 
have made the Gaelic or Cymric legends, 
our great-grandchildren would have no 
more right to neglect the positive facts con- 
tained in these recitals than would we our- 
selves have to deny the voyages and the 
transatlantic establishments of the Irish and 
French Celts, on account of the fiction with 
which they were adorned, for they constitute 
a source of information no less precious." 
This was the age of miracle and mystery 
and the Irish Celt who had no place for, 
nor word to express the idea of privilege, 
could see no reason why, if Jehovah of 
the; Jews had performed certain wonderful 
acts for their edification and that the world 
was called upon to believe those things and 
stake their eternal hopes thereon, that the 
Baal of the Celt, who never deserted his 
post during the countless evolutions of 
nature, should not be credited with at 



73 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

least as much of foresight and protection 
to his own favored race. If we accept the 
one, how can we, as rational beings, reject 
the other." But it is time to pass from 
legend to history, and to show from very 
authentic voyages, that we can register as a 
reality the truth of the voyages of "Oisin," 
''Brendan" and "Maelduin." 



74 



CHAPTER XII. 

CuLDEES OR Celtic Priests in the 
West and Northwest. 

That the Culdees or Celtic priests were \ 
the forerunners of the discoverers in the 
West and Northwest, there is but Httle 
doubt. Several motives forced this emi- 
gration upon them, the principal of which 
was the variance with the Italian and Eng- 
lish churches in the time of celebrating 
Easter, baptismal ceremonies, monastic 
tonsures, etc., which are very fully re- 
ferred to by "Varin" in his "Causes of 
Disagreement between the Irish and the 
Italian Churches." Montelambert in his 
"Monks of the West" referring to this 
matter says of the Irish, "Very faithful to 
the rites of their beloved teacher, several 
of them conformed to the decisions of the 
Conference of Wilby, quitted England, 



75 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

and returned with their chief, Bishop Col- 
man, to the monastery of lona in 664, A. 
D., while Bede in his "Ecclesiastical His- 
tory of the Angles" tells us that they left 
England on account of the plague that 
broke out there, and from which the people 
died in swarms. He says that during this 
period several of the then native English or 
Saxons left England and migrated to Ire- 
land, where they were accommodated 
gratis, with food, shelter, clothes, learning 
and books, and Alfred, King of the North- 
umbrians, who was amongst those exiles, 
when about to return home, wrote a Gaelic 
poem of some sixty lines, in Bardic metre. 
This poem was intended as a compliment 
to the high state of civilization, learning, 
fraternity and hospitality of the Irish, and 
as the only remuneration he could offer 
for all the courtesies and favors he and his 
people received from the then flourishing 
and independent Irish nation. This poem 
is still extant. Hardiman had a vellum 
copy of it, in which he says the character 



76 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

was ancient and obscure, Mangan made 
a poetical translation for Montgomery, 
which is worth recording here as a testi- 
mony of the high standing of our people at 
an age when Europe was just emerging 
from the Cimmerian darkness of the bar- 
baric ages, although we are told by would- 
be reformers, and pious frauds that our 
ancestors were in a very deluded state until 
the light of the Italio- Jewish civilization 
was brought in by a man who was able to 
take no higher place in a Celtic Community 
than to attend to the swine on the slopes of 
Slieve Mis. 

"Alfred's Tribute to the Irish 
Nation. 

I found in Innisfail the fair 

In Ireland, while in exile there 

Women of worth, both grave and gay men, 

Many clerics and many lay men. 

I travelled its fruitful provinces round, 
And in every one of the five I found, 



77 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Alike in church and in palace hall, 
Abundant apparel and food for all. 
Gold and silver I found, and money, 
Plenty of wheat, and plenty of honey, 
I found those people, rich in pity, 
Found many a feast and many a city. 
I also found in Armagh the splendid, 
Meekness, prudence and wisdom blended, 
Fasting as Columba recommended 
And noble councillors untranscended. 
I found in each great church moreo'er. 
Whether on island, or on shore, 
Piety, learning, fond affection. 
Holy welcome and kind protection. 
I found the good lay monks and brothers. 
Ever beseeching help for others, 
And in their keeping the holy word. 
Pure as written first from the Lord. 
I found in Munster, unfettered of any, 
Kings and Queens, and poets a' many; 
Poets well skilled in music and measure, 
Prosperous doings, mirth and pleasure. 
I found in Connaught the just, redun- 
dance — 



78 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Of riches, milk in lavish abundance, 
Hospitality, vigor, fame, 
In Cruachan's land of heroic name. 
I found in Ulster, from hill to glen, 
Hardy warriors, resolute men, 
Beauty that bloomed when youth was gone 
And strength transmitted from sire to son. 
I found in Leinster the smooth and sleek, 
From Dublin to Slewmargy's peak. 
Flourishing pastures, valor, health. 
Song loving worthies, commerce, wealth. 
I found beside from Ara to Glea 
In the broad rich country of Ossory, 
Sweet fruits, good laws for all and each. 
Great chess-players, men of truthful speech, 
I found in Meath's fair principality 
Virtue, vigor and hospitality. 
Candor, joyfulness, bravery, purity, 
Ireland's bulwark and security. 
I found strict morals in age and youth, 
I found historians recording truth. 
The things I sing of in verse unsmooth, 
I found them all— I have written, sooth." 



79 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

The Celt of those early days, unlike his 
descendant of to-day, refused to be dic- 
tated to by either Italian or Saxon, and 
knowing the real nature of both those races 
stoutly refused to purchase salvation from 
their hands, but maintained that he himself 
had received his revelations from a higher 
and a purer source than any of those Sal- 
vationists was capable of producing ; in fact 
that he received it not second-hand, but 
directly from the East, and practised then 
what his Eastern forefathers had done cen- 
turies upon centuries before; that lately he 
had kept a festival upon whose anniversary 
every cottage and hamlet was lighted by a 
bonfire, a custom preserved to this day, 
while the memory of lesser dignitaries 
passed by unnoticed. When however, it was 
decided by the king of Northumbria, that 
only one system of computing Easter 
should be held in his dominions, and pref- 
erence was given to the Italian over the 
Irish system, the Celtic monks withdrew 
to lona and Ireland from a field where they 
had labored for centuries, and from a 

80 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

people they had raised from the most bar- 
barous depths to members in a civilized 
religious society. 

Fifty years after this period, when Neach- 
tan, King of the Picts, ordered his people 
to be guided by Italian customs and belief, 
the Culdees voluntarily exiled themselves 
from Scotland, and later, when at one fell 
stroke, Ireland was brought under Italian 
and English domination, there was nothing 
left to them but emigration to the Western 
and Northwestern Archipelagoes, and]|there 
they retired one after another, but^they 
were always viewed with jealousy by the 
followers of the Italio- Jewish Cult, then 
becoming fashionable in Western Europe. 

In a paper read before the American 
Congress at Copenhagen, the Frenchman, 
Beauvais, gives a very vivid account of 
this important period in the history of 
Irish development in the Western world 
and especially in Mexico. 

He says, ''that no sooner had the new 
Italio- Jewish faith located itself than its 



8i 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

followers began to demand the control if 
not the expulsion of the native Irish civil- 
ization, and being disgusted with the lack 
of patriotism in their countrymen, and the 
gradual elimination of every national char- 
acteristic, the Papae renounced their native 
land with some misgivings, for its future 
welfare, which alas, was too well founded, 
and explored the Northern seas, whose 
mysterious regions always exercised an 
invincible attraction over them." 

Cambrensis says in his "Hibernian Top- 
ography," "The Lord has made what- 
ever he wished both in heaven and in earth, 
and in the deep abysses, but it is at the 
remote extremity of the earth that eman- 
cipated nature enjoys itself with the most 
astounding prodigies." The Irish were no 
doubt his ideal of those prodigies. They 
believed that beyond the countries inhab- 
ited by men, were others extending to lands 
unknown, perhaps the remnants of former 
continents now disappeared, and into 
those strange lands the Irish saints and 



82 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. ' 

scholars loved to wander, where they en- 
joyed themselves in educating and elevating 
the less enlightened members of the human 
race. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Barton and his Voyage. 

Adamnan in his "Life of Columbcille," 
cites the voyage of Barton, the next succes- 
sor in lona, and another voyage of his 
cotemporary, Cormac, who was drifted for 
forty days by a violent south wind, on the 
Atlantic Ocean, when having gone beyond 
all previous and known limits, was forced 
into a region of the ocean, where he was 
assailed by black little insects, that threat- 
ened to pierce with their fangs the skins, 
with which the vessel was sheathed. This 
very detail proves the authenticity of the 
recital, for it is now well known that there 
is a species of Crustacea in the Northern 
seas that attacks the ships in bands or 
swarms. However, when the wind fell, 
Cormac was able to retrace his steps south- 
ward to home and give an account of his 
experiences in the frozen waters of the 
Arctic Ocean. 



84 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Later in the seventh century, we have, 
upon the authority of O' Curry, who quotes 
the incident in his "Manners and Customs 
of the Ancient Irish," a more authentic 
testimony of the knowledge of a Western 
World by the Irish Celts. Two chieftains, 
monks of lona, Snedgus and MacRiagla, 
with some of their followers, undertook a 
maritime pilgrimage. They wandered for 
many months on the Atlantic, and dis- 
covered the existence of several islands un- 
known before, some of which were deserted, 
while others were thickly inhabited. On 
one occasion, they were surprised to hear 
the mournful dirge of a native funeral, 
and immediately recognized the Irish Bean 
Caointe or Female Mourner of their native 
land, who chanted those doleful strains at 
the last obsequies of a dear, departed rela- 
tive, ages before other European peoples 
could realize that nothing more was needed 
than allow their aged or infirm to die by the 
wayside, and permit the wild beasts to 
arrange for their interment. Indeed we 



85 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

may safely claim without any fear of con- 
tradiction, that the burial services now so 
popular and remunerative, first originated 
among the Irish Celts, and that the 
soprano of the modern day is only the lineal 
successor of the Irish Bean Caointe. 

However, they landed and were most 
hospitably received by a number of ladies 
who addressed them in the mellifluous tones 
of their own native tongue. It sounded 
to them like heavenly music for they im- 
agined themselves again on their native 
shores, and only recovered from their 
trance to find out that they were on one of 
the islands far away, beyond the Atlantic 
Ocean. Those ladies conducted them 
before the chief who received them with 
all the hospitality of an Irish chieftain, and 
that deference which it was the custom of 
his people to pay to strangers. This chief 
and his followers were exiles of the tribe 
of Per Roy, who having transgressed the 
laws of hospitality in some manner, under- 
took as penance a voluntary exile, beyond 
the Atlantic waves. 

86 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

After a long sojourn in this Western 
land, Snedgus and MacRiagla returned 
again to lona. They brought with them, 
however, a proof of their discovery. It was 
a large leaf from one of the tropical trees, 
no doubt, for we are told it was almost as 
large as an ox hide, and was carefully 
deposited at lona until the Culdees trans- 
ferred their headquarters to Ireland, where 
they brought the leaf and it was carefully 
preserved in Kells. When McFirbis and 
his brother GioUa losa were adding to the 
Book of Leacain in 1390, A. D., their ac- 
count of the ''Adventures of the Clerics 
of the Order of Columbcille this leaf was 
in a good state of preservation, but unfor- 
tunately it, like other monuments of our 
people's greatness, has been ruthlessly 
destroyed, and nothing left us to-day but 
the sad mementoes as fruits of a barbarous 
Italian-English civilization. 

Beauvais, in his essay on the "Great 
Land of the West" quotes these voyages 
from the Book of the Maelconroys, a 



87 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

manuscript still inedited, and shows from a 
work of Magnus O'Donnell, in the year 
(647, that in that age those voyages and 
discoveries were well known and taught. 

The famous leaf of which we write was 
called the Duilleabar Baithe, and from its 
immense size, all the eminent men who 
have mentioned it, agree that it could only 
be found in tropical America. Then who 
can say that the Irish with their curraghs ? 
did not land upon the American shores. 
We can only mention some of the voyages 
of the Culdees in the Northwestern 
Atlantic, because the manuscripts which 
contain those voyages and several other 
matters relating to that period are still un- 
published and accessible only to a few 
select Gaelic scholars. 

Although we may speak reservedly of 
several voyages, undertaken at this early 
period by the monks of Columba or Cul- 
dees, the certainty of those voyages does 
not admit of doubt. The Orcades or 
Western Isles of Scotland, the Shetland 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Isles and all that group were first known 
and settled by them. Their colonies were 
so acceptable to the Aboriginal inhabitants 
that they not only took the name, but 
adopted the costume of those that came to 
civilize them, and preserved their manners, 
customs, and language until the ninth cen- 
tury, when the king or Norway, Harold, 
invaded these archipelagoes and resettled 
it with his own savage Norwegians. But 
the name Papae still lingers in the Orcades, 
for we find to-day the Isles of Papawertra 
and Papastronsa; and in several localities 
such as Paplay. In Shetland it is still sig- 
nificant in the three Isles of Papastone, 
Papalittle and Papa, close to the territory 
of Papil. 

The Swedish geographer Miinch, in his 
"Geography of the Shetland and Orkney 
Islands" quotes a number of localities 
which are derived from those teachers of 
Celtic Civilization, the Papae or Pupae. 
In another work of his published at Chris- 
tiana in 1850, entitled "Symbols relating 



89 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

to Ancient History," he quotes a peculiar 
and interesting passage from Norwegian 
History which he had discovered and bear- 
ing upon the subject under our consider- 
ation. He says: "The Papae or Pupae 
are so called on account of the white gar- 
ments which they were accustomed to 
wear; and in all the Teutonic languages 
the clerics and teachers were called 
Papae." But it is in our own manuscripts 
we must look for the meaning of this cus- 
tom. In the Irish language the word 
Papa or Pupa means a teacher or cleric, 
and the Book of Ballymote furnishes the 
remainder where it describes how only 
certain colors were allowed for certain 
ranks of society, not for the purpose of 
comparison but to mark distinctly what the 
profession or calling of each one was, thus : 

Blue to women 

Crimson to kings of every host, 
Green and black to noble laymen, 
White to clerics 



90 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

According to O'Curry this distinction 
was made at a period long anterior to the 
dawn of ItaHo- Jewish civilization in Western 
Europe, hence these men could not have 
copied it from any of those two peoples 
who did not themselves possess or know 
of the custom for ages afterwards. 

From the Orcades and the Shetland 
Islands, the Papae or Culdees passed easily 
into the Faroe Islands. One of them, 
Diciul, who composed a geographical 
tract, called "The Extent of the Earth's 
Surface" in the year 825, A. D., speaks of 
this discovery, thus: "There are a great 
number of other islands in the ocean to the 
north of Bretagne. The vessels sailing 
there and driven by a wind always favor- 
able, require two days and two nights to 
reach those Northwestern isles." 

"A missionary, worthy of belief, has 
told me that after having sailed for two 
days and one night in Summer time, he 
landed in one of the islands. These islands 
are small, for the most part they are all 



91 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

separated, the one from the other by passes 
or straits very difficult of navigation. They 
were perhaps, some hundred years estab- 
lished and inhabited by monks who de- 
parted from Scotia, But just as if they 
had been deserted since the creation of 
the world, the monks and religieuse being 
driven out by the savage Northmen, these 
beautiful isles are now (825) inhabited by 
flocks of wild beast and every known species 
of seabird." 

Scotia, here means Ireland, for it was so 
called all through the Middle Ages, and 
meant in the works and writings of Alcuin, 
Alfred the Great, Bede and Eginhard. 
It was only in the middle of the ninth cen- 
tury, when the king of the Picts died, with- 
out leaving any direct heir to the kingdom, 
that Kenneth, king of Dalriada, the coun- 
try of the Ancient Scotts, possessed himself 
of the country of the Picts, and united the 
two territories into one kingdom in 843, 
A. D., although the name Scotland was 
not applied to Alban until the eleventh 
century. 

92 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CULDEES AND THE NORTHMEN, 

In 1849 the German Schroeter, who was 
very much devoted to collecting and per- 
petuating local traditions, thus speaks of 
these islands, — "This archipelago was rav- 
ished by the Northmen as were the 
Orcades and the Shetland Isles, but the tra- 
ditions and remembrances of the Culdees 
still linger there. When the Northmen in- 
vaded these islands, they found there men 
whom they regarded as of a different crea- 
tion, for they had books and could write, 
which contrasted so strongly with their 
own savage nature, while they understood 
nature so well that they were able to heal 
both men and animals. They made pre- 
dictions according as the general catch of 
the fish, and the health of the people, were 
favorable or unfavorable. 

They did not live as others, for their food 



93 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

consisted only of milk, wild birds' eggs, 
roots and sea weed. They tamed some 
goats which supplied them with milk, but 
they neither killed an animal nor spilled 
blood, preferring like the ancient Egyp- 
tians, to live upon the vegetable kingdom, 
and we have no doubt this fact contributed 
much to the advanced state in which learn- 
ing and science then prevailed. The only 
things they accepted as presents or in re- 
muneration for their services, were un- 
leavened bread, the cuttle-fish, and a 
species of composite cloth, called drugget, 
which is made of a mixture of flax and 
coarse wool. They still point out several 
localities where these pious and good men 
inhabited. When the Norwegians arrived, 
some of them fled by sea to other desolated 
places, and there took refuge in the caverns. 
Through all this one can easily see the 
Irish Culdees who dwelt there and converted 
the inhabitants to their own principles of 
belief." 

But where did the fugitives go when 



94 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

they left the Faroe Islands? Dicuil, the 
astronomer, who wrote a learned tract on 
the measurement of the orb of the earth, 
says it was to Iceland, an island distant 
about two days' sail from Bretagne. That 
it was peopled by the Scots at one time, 
but those being driven out by the savage 
Northmen, its only tenants then were wild 
beasts and sea fowl. 

Faithful to their spirit of initiating and 
propagating, the Culdees always sought 
new lands where they might teach others 
their native cult, and find repose. 

The first land which they met to the 
north was Iceland. Dicuil calls it Thule, 
but the description which he has left leaves 
no doubt, because Iceland is the only one 
of all the islands around the Polar Circle, 
where the Culdees could land and reside 
on quitting the Faroe Islands. We will 
let himself describe his voyage. He says, 
^'Some of the clerics who lived there for 
thirty years have told me, that from the 
first of February, almost to the first of 



95 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

August, the sun does not set, except dur- 
ing the Summer Solstice, and a few days 
before and after, when he appears to hide 
himself behind a hill, so that darkness pre- 
vails only for a very short duration. In fact 
it is so short that one can see to pursue all 
his occupations, even to the most minute, 
during the entire time between the periods 
above specified, and it is probable that if 
one was on the top of a mountain, the sun 
would not be so hidden from his view. 
They have contradicted those who have 
said that this was an island surrounded 
by a sea of ice, because these clerics have 
told me that they went there in the coldest 
season, and were able to land. It is true 
they have said, that in wandering to the 
north of this isle, they have found the 
entire ocean impenetrable." 

The Culdees, as we see, were enterpris- 
ing, and if they were not hindered by these 
unsurmountable barriers of ice, against 
which have been shattered all the heroic 
and daring attempts from Pythias to 



96 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Nansen, they would have carried their Celtic 
doctrines and civilization far beyond Ice- 
land, wherever man was found, and have 
planted there the Gal Greine or Sunburst 
of the Gael. 

In the direction of the north, Iceland was 
their final goal, and when the Northmen 
landed there in the latter portion of the 
ninth century, after ravaging the Irish ec- 
clesiastical establishments that were within 
their reach, the monks ceded the place to 
them, and wandered into other lands. But 
Are Frodhe says in his "Islendina, Segur," 
1843, ''Some of those monks, however, 
remained in the country of Iceland. It 
was evidently an Irishman, or his de- 
scendant, who in 986, A. D., accompanied 
Erick Raudhe in his expedition into 
Greenland, and composed a poem 
entitled ''Hafderdingar," of which the re- 
frain has been preserved in the Landnam- 
abok, thus, ''I pray that Power who 
submitted the monks to those salutary tests, 
to favor my voyage ; that the Master of the 



97 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

celestial vault reaches out to me a helping 
hand." 

The same author remarks, "There were 
in Iceland, at this time. Christians, whom 
the Sagas tell us were Irish, and whom the 
Norwegians called Papae, but these latter 
departed, because they did not wish to re- 
main with the Pagan Northmen. They 
left behind them, Irish books, bells and 
crosses, from which it was justly concluded 
that they were Irish." 

In another place the Landnamabok or 
Book of Invasions says, "Before Iceland 
was colonized by the Norwegians, there 
had been in the island some men whom the 
Northmen called Papae. They were Chris- 
tians, and it is asserted and believed they 
came from some country west of the ocean, 
for the objects found among them must cer- 
tainly have come from Ireland. They had 
a church dedicated to St. Columbcille, and 
was built in honor of Aslof-Aslik, one of a 
dozen Irish teachers who had been estab- 
lished in Rengarthnig, and who did not 



98 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

wish to have any intercourse with the sur- 
rounding Pagans." The things thus found 
were made at Papey and Papylae. We see 
thus by EngHsh books that there existed 
an intercourse between them. 

All the archipelagoes of the northern 
seas, as well as Iceland, have been trav- 
elled and colonized by the Culdees, but 
being impeded by the ice they were unable 
to push their investigations further, and 
stopped from their labors by the North- 
men in their inhumanity and brutality of 
conquest, they were obliged to recoil before 
them, as formerly the Phoenicians before 
the Greeks, and attempt new discoveries 
in this ocean, which even to them had not 
deceived any of their hopes. They 
boarded their currachs once more and from 
tempest to tempest, from storm to storm, 
they finally landed on American soil which 
they named ''Irland It Mikla" or "Greater 
Ireland." 

Beauvais in his "Discovery of the New 
World by the Irish" and his "First Traces 

LOFa 

99 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

of Christianity in America Before the Year 
i,ooo A. D.," gives an elaborate account 
of the civihzation and humanity of those 
Irish Culdees from the tenth to the four- 
teenth century, and quotes authorities to 
which we, alas, have not access, all em- 
inent French explorers and missionaries, 
who had no purpose to serve nor vanity to 
gratify, but only to tell the truth, of what 
they found, to their own countrymen who 
sent them. 

The Scandinavian Sagas are practically 
in accord with these stories of our own, 
and only differ in being more full and giv- 
ing our people greater credit for those early 
exploits than we claim for them, for we 
have been taught a false modesty in con- 
ceding to the Spaniard, the Italian, the 
Englishman and the Jew, the deeds which 
should shine as halos in our own bright, 
lustrous crowns. 



I GO 



CHAPTER XV. 
Irland It Mikla (Greater Ireland.) 

The Culdees profiting by their former 
experience with the savagery of the North, 
took good care on this occasion to guard 
their discoveries and watched with jealous 
care, lest they should become known on the 
European side of the Atlantic. These are 
the Northmen from Iceland who estab- 
lished themselves on these new domains, 
and it is in the works written by them, 
that we shall find the proof of this first 
establishment of a true Celtic civilization in 
the New World. 

Three Icelandic works speak of ''Ir- 
land It Mikla" or Greater Ireland. The 
first is the " Landnamabok" or "Book of 
Invasions of Iceland." It is a genealogical 
history of the principal Icelandic families 
from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries. 
It was composed or begun by Are 

lOI 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Thorgilsson, surnamed Frodhe, or the 
philosopher, and completed by five other 
historians or genealogists. 

Are Frodhe lived from 1067 to 1148, A. 
D., and thus speaks of his great-grand- 
father, Are Marsson. "Are the son of 
Mar and of Thorkatla was driven by a 
tempest on the Huitramannaland, that 
some call " Irland It Mikla". This coun- 
try is situated to the west of the sea, near 
Vinland St. Godha, and they say about six 
days' journey from Ireland. This was 
first made known by Rafin, Hlymreksfare, 
who had for a long time lived in Hlymrek 
in Ireland." 

"Thorkell Gellisson reports also that 
some Icelanders said they learned from 
Thorfinn, chief of the Orkneys, that Ar^ 
had been met and known in Huitramanna- 
land; that he could not leave it but was 
treated with great honor there as chieftain ; 
that Rafin who lived a long time in Lim- 
erick, Ireland, got his information from 
Irish voyagers returned from America." 



102 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Here then is an Icelander, At6 Marsson, 
thrown by a tempest on a land where he 
was well received by the people, who would 
not permit him to return again to his own 
country. The reports of these voyagers 
spread nevertheless, and there are two Ice- 
landers, Rafin and Thorkell Gellisson, 
who transmitted them to the compilers of 
the ''Book of Invasions of Iceland." As 
this Rafin lived, we are told, for a long time 
in Limerick, Ireland, it is safe for us to as- 
sume that he gleaned the information from 
those Celtic sailors who had ventured be- 
yond the Atlantic waves and on their 
return home had reported the story of 
their travels. 

As to Thorkell Gellisson, he was the 
paternal uncle of Are Frodha. He had 
voyaged much, learned much, and trans- 
mitted a great deal to his nephew, through 
whom the story and facts have been pre- 
served, which we ought to have had made 
known centuries ago, but which like all 
other attributes and facts of our former 



103 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

greatness have been studiously destroyed, 
and nothing preserved by those trusted 
few, but something detrimental to our 
fame or character, painted to exaggeration, 
to show a necessity for redeeming us. 
Yes, men who claim to be our countrymen 
have actually belied their ow^n ancestors 
for the sake of a living and left it for the 
French and the German scholars to undo 
what they had villainously done. 

These facts, then, rest upon the testi- 
mony of the chief of the Orcades or West- 
ern Isles, who told of a country colonized 
by the Irish Culdees, and who, without 
doubt, had preserved some relations with 
the other colonies founded by the same 
order of men; that they occupied a great 
country to the west, and that they hindered 
all the navigators, who, either by hazard 
or storm, had been driven on the shore 
from landing in their newly acquired terri- 
tory. 

But we have a new fragment of Irish 
chronology, more conclusive still. It is 

104 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA 

taken from the Eyrbyggia Saga, which was 
composed in 1148, A. D., before the Irish 
submitted to the king of Norway, in 1204, 
A. D. It has been pubHshed twice on 
the continent of Europe in its entirety in 
1782, A. D., at Copenhagen, and in 1864, 
A. D., at Leipsic. Beauvais has given 
extracts from it in his ^'Scandinavian Dis- 
coveries in America from the X. to the 
XIII. Centuries." It is a history of 
notable persons of the peninsular of Thor- 
ness and of Erbygges in Western Iceland. 
According to this Saga, Bjern, son of As- 
brand, was smitten by the charms of the 
beautiful Thuride of Frodha, and remained 
on intimate terms with her after his mar- 
riage with another lady named Thorold. 
From this followed hostilities and assassi- 
nations. Being arrested and brought be- 
fore the chief judge for having killed two 
of his adversaries, Bjern was sentenced to 
exile, where he distinguished himself for 
his bravery and returned to Iceland after 
six years, but always preserving the same 



105 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

affection for his former love Thuride. 
Compromised by his assiduities and pur- 
sued by the hatred of the family of Thuride 
who did not favor her illegitimate relations, 
Bjern was exiled a second time, and set sail 
under a strong northeasterly wind which 
blew continually for a long period. Noth- 
ing is heard of this ship for several years 
afterwards. 



1 06 



CHAPTER XVI. 
Irish Chronology. 

The second exile of Bjern occurred in 
the year i,ooo, A. D., and about thirty 
years afterwards, or 1030, towards the end 
of the supremacy of St. Olaf, a rich Ice- 
landic ship owner, Gudhlief, having made 
a voyage to Dublin, Ireland, sailed to- 
wards the west, returning into Iceland, 
but a strong northeastern wind drove him 
so far to sea, towards the west or south- 
west, that he lost his course and did not 
know where to land. Towards the end of 
Summer his sailors prayed and made vows, 
in case they should be preserved from ship- 
wreck, and very soon after they descried 
land at a distance which proved to be a 
veryjarge tract, that they knew nothing 
about, forjhey had never seen it or heard 
of it before this occasion. 

Gudhlief and his crew, fatigued by a 



107 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

long and dreary voyage, were glad to meet 
land and as soon as the opportunity offered 
came ashore. They found a good port 
and were only a little while landed when 
some men arrived to meet them, of whom 
they knew nothing save that they spoke the 
Irish language. Soon this multitude, in- 
creased to several hundreds, assailed the 
navigators, seized them all as captives, 
secured them with chains, and brought 
them inland to the high country. 

They were conducted before an assembly 
to be judged, where they learned from the 
conversation and discussions, that some 
of the people wished to end their career at 
once by massacre, but that others, more 
lenient and humane, counselled saving their 
lives, but reducing them to slavery for a 
time and dividing them among the several 
communities or tribes. 

During the deliberations, they saw ap- 
proaching a troup of horsemen bearing a 
standard resembling the Irish flag, from 
which they concluded that the chief of 



io8 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

the assembly was of the company. When 
the troop arrived, they saw riding beneath 
the banner, a noble and vigorous looking 
man, already aged and hair tinged with 
gray. All the assistants bowed before this 
personage and received him with every 
mark of honor. To him was left the final 
settlement of the affair. 

The old man, came to seek Gudhlief 
and his people, and speaking to them in 
a northern language asked them from 
what country did they hail. Gudhlief re- 
plied that the majority came from Iceland. 
"And which of you comes from Iceland?" 
Gudhlief said he was one of them, and 
saluted the old man who saluted him and 
received him so kindly and asked him, 
"From which part of Iceland are you?" 
Gudhlief said he was from the Cantred of 
Borgarfoerdh. He then questioned him 
about all the personages in the locality of 
any standing, as well as those in the district 
lying around Brerdhaf joerdh. In this con- 
versation he asked him of everything in 



109 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

particular regarding Snorre Godha, and 
his sister Thuride of Frodha; but above all 
of Kjartan, son of Thuride, who was at 
that time master of Frodha. 

As the inhabitants were growing im- 
patient and demanded a speedy solution 
of the affair, the chief declared that he 
should let the strangers go free, but said in 
confidence to Gudhlief: "Now that the 
Summer is well advanced, I advise you to 
set sail from here prom.ptly, because it 
is not necessary or good that you trust 
yourselves too much to the inhabitants, as 
they are now annoyed and believe that the 
law has been violated in your favor." 

"But," said Gudhlief, "if we should ever 
arrive in our native country, who, shall we 
say, has saved us from this catastrophe?" 
"I cannot tell you that," said he, "for I 
would not wish my parents, friends or 
brothers-in-arms, to know where I am, lest 
they might make a voyage here as you 
have done and then, perhaps, I might not 
be here to protect them. There are in this 

no 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

land chiefs more powerful than I am, 
although not in this locality where you 
landed, but if they chanced to be here they 
would have little regard for strangers." 

In spite of the entreaties of the Icelanders 
the old chief would not tell his name, but 
pressed their departure, assisted them in 
embarking and gave them many presents 
destined for Thuride and her son, but in 
parting admonished them sternly, "If any- 
body shall insist on knowing or believing to 
know from whom those objects come, tell 
them from me that I object, and that I 
oppose anyone, whoever he may be, com- 
ing on my part, to find me. It would be a 
dangerous enterprise, unless it should hap- 
pen them as it did you, that they should 
get a favorable landing place. This coun- 
try is large and badly provided with places 
to land, but above all, tell them, that there 
is a very bad reception given to strangers." 
Gudhlief and his crew betook themselves 
immediately to their ships, and arrived in 
Dublin, Ireland, late in the Autumn, where 



III 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

they spent the Winter. The following 
Spring they set sail for Iceland, where they 
arrived in good season, and delivered the 
presents to their proper destination. Some 
writers hold for certain that this chief was 
Bjern, but there is no proof for it, other 
than this we have just quoted. 

No doubt, these adventures are very 
romantic, and the fortuitous meeting of 
Bjern and Gudhlief appear arranged to 
suit, but it is not incredible and besides 
it is preserved in an Icelandic Saga, whose 
authenticity has never been contested. 
But if we accept the truth of this story, we 
must conclude that the two Icelanders, 
Bjern and Gudhlief, have both been cast 
by a tempest in a civilized country, sit- 
uated far to the west, where the Irish lan- 
guage was freely spoken, but where the 
inhabitants, for reasons of self-preservation, 
either massacred or reduced to slavery, all 
those plundering Northmen, who chanced 
to come among them. Then, again, this 
country was situated to the west of Ireland 



112 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

and of Iceland, in the direction of America, 
and appears to correspond to the Irland It 
Mikla, where Are the son of Marsson, had 
previously landed. 

A third Saga, that of Thorfinn Karlsefne, 
composed from the accounts of one of the 
many Northmen, who discovered Vinland, 
contains a passage of great importance, rel 
ative to the establishment of the Irish in 
the New World. It is said that some time 
about the year i,ooo, A. D., Thorfinn and 
his companions after having passed three 
years in Vinland, or America, were return- 
ing into Greenland, when they found upon 
their way five Skroelligs or Esquimaux, a 
man v/ith beard, two women and two chil- 
dren. The people of the Karlsefne, cap- 
tured the children, but the man and the 
women escaped and hid among the bur- 
rows of the rocks. The children were 
taken along and soon learned the northern 
language, when they told their captors that 
"their father's name was Uvaege, and their 
mother they called Vetthilde. They said 



113 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

that the Skroelhgs were controlled by two 
kings or chiefs, one called Avalldania, and 
the other Valldidida; that they had no 
houses, but dwelt among the rocks or in 
holes in the earth ; that another great coun- 
try close to theirs was inhabited by a people 
who dressed in white, and often when trav- 
elling in great numbers carried poles from 
which hung long pieces of cloth, while they 
cried aloud: "This great country is be- 
lieved to have been Huitramannaland or 
Irland It Mikla." 

Who were those people, dressed in white ? 
Who, but the ancient Culdees, or some of 
the original inhabitants, amongst whom 
they settled, and who retained faithfully 
the costume of Columbcille. Perhaps, 
these were the Indian tribes who were called 
Cneistneaux by the French (the letters 
"r" and "n" are commutable). They 
dwelt close to the great lakes, west of Mich- 
igan. What were these poles borne aloft 
and hung with draperies; and what were 
these chants, which had struck and had so 



IT4 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

much affected the imaginations of the 
young Esquimaux? Is it not easy to rec- 
ognize a procession of some chanters, of 
which those Culdees would have preserved 
the custom even in their new country? 
The Icelandic Saga of Thorfinn says so, 
and reference is made to those early Irish- 
men in each of five manuscripts, preserved 
in Iceland, and published by Rafin in his 
"American Antiquities," and by the 
"Greenland Historical Society" in their 
transactions. 



115 



CHAPTER XVII . 
Irish Documentary Proofs. 

From these three Irish documents, pre- 
served by the Landnamabok, the Eyrbyg- 
gia, and the Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne, 
it is proved that the Irish had discovered, 
in the West, a country, to which they gave 
the name of Irland It Mikla, or "Greater 
Ireland." That this other name of " Huit- 
ramannaland" or "Land Where Man 
Dressed in White" recalls the customs of 
the Culdees; that they had preserved the 
usages of the Celtic language, and remained 
faithful to their Celtic civilization; that 
they celebrated with processions and the 
singing of hymns; and finally that they 
were without pity for shipwrecked sailors, 
because, being themselves several times 
pursued and banished from their settle- 
ments, by the cruel Northmen, they wished 
to ensure future security, and for that 

ii6 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

reason concealed, as niuch as possible, 
all their discoveries. America, therefore, 
has been known and partly colonized by 
the Irish, and although the testimony from 
their own literature fails in precision owing 
to the immense quantity of their native 
books that were ruthlessly destroyed, still 
the existence of Irland It Mikla can and 
must be considered as an established his- 
torical fact. 

Two other documents, the one of Ital- 
ian origin, the other from the province of 
Gaul, confirm the realty of this coloniza- 
tion of America by the Irish long before 
Columbus dreamt of venturing on the 
Atlantic storms. 

At the end of the fourteenth century, 
two patricians of Venice, Nicolo and An- 
tonio Zeno, compelled by the chances of 
an adventurous life, in the regions, situ- 
ated in the Northwest of Europe, visited, 
one after another the countries formerly 
colonized by the Culdees or white-robed 
monks of the Irish Cult. They wrote an 



117 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

account of their voyages, and described 
all the countries visited in glowing pictures 
and eloquent words. In describing the 
Faroe Islands they said: "About the year 
1360, A. D., an old fisherman belonging to 
one of those islands had been beyond the 
Atlantic and there saw a large country, 
very rich and very populous." 

But before the Zenos, in the time of King 
Robert of Sicily, another Italian, Edrisi, re- 
counts a curious piece of intelligence which 
he learned from one of the Northmen at 
the court of King Robert (1130-54) A. D. 
"Four fishing vessels set sail westward, 
but soon they were assailed by a violent 
storm which blew for several days in the 
same direction, until they were driven from 
their known course, and had lost all knowl- 
edge of their whereabouts in the ocean. 
When it grew calm, they discovered an 
island far to the west, and named it 
Estotiland. They thought themselves then 
more than one thousand miles from Fries- 
land, their native home. One of the 



118 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

vessels and six men were taken by the nati- 
ves to a village or community which was 
very thickly populated, where the chief lived. 
He asked them several questions but neither 
one could understand the other. The 
chief however sent out one of his subordi- 
nates, who soon returned with another 
stranger that was able to talk with them 
in their own language. He asked them, 
on behalf of the king, who they were and 
where did they come from, and told them 
that he had been driven upon the island 
himself some years previously, and had 
made his home there. 

When the king or chief was told about 
them, he resolved to make them prisoners, 
They had no choice, but submit readily, 
as the best policy. They remained here for 
five years and learned the language of the 
natives. One of them visited several 
places, and v/hen, later, he visited his native 
land, gave his lord an accurate and lengthy 
account of what he observed. 
He described it as "very rich, abundantly 



119 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

provided with all the goods of the world, 
and a little smaller than Iceland, but 
much more fertile. About the middle of it 
was a very high mountain from which four 
streams flowed that watered the entire land. 
The inhabitants were ingenious and as far 
advanced as the Frieslanders, where they 
must have originally traded, because they 
observed in the king's hall several books 
which, however, they could not understand 
for their language and alphabet differed 
much from that of the Frieslanders. They 
work mines and have gold in abundance. 
They have commercial relations with 
Greenland, from which they get skins in 
exchange for sulphur and pitch. South of 
this was an immense region, very rich and 
very populous, where the people cultivate 
grain and make a kind of drink which is 
greatly in use among those western peoples, 
like wine among the Italians. They have 
towns, villages, and mansions; they con- 
struct vessels and navigate but they know 
nothing of the usage of the lodestone, or 



1 20 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

governing their ships by the direction of 
the North Pole." 

"According to these extraordinary ad- 
ventures of which more shall be said 
elsewhere, this fisherman of Friesland, 
succeeded in equipping his vessel at their 
expense and returned to his native country, 
where he reported to his lord the discov- 
ery of such a rich country." 

Now what was this rich country, and 
who were those civilized people, dwelling 
upon what seemed to those wanderers to 
be an island ? Their name, their mode of 
living, their caution against admitting 
strangers, and above all, their library of 
strange books at such an early period 
would prove that they were either Celts or 
Greeks ; but as it is well known the Greeks 
did not go so far west until centuries later, 
while the Irish Celts were, for several 
reasons missionaries, both to the west and 
to the east, it is fair to assume that this 
highly civilized people were no other than 
the Irish Culdees, who, to escape the 



121 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

savage civilization of the South and the plun- 
dering hordes of the north of Europe, 
went West, where they could enjoy in 
peace, the fruits of their labor. 

We believe that this land corresponds 
exactly with Irland It Mikla, not only be- 
cause its inhabitants had preserved the 
customs, as in the time of Bjern and 
Gudhlief, of fortifying themselves against 
strangers, by detaining them as prisoners, 
but above all because they enjoyed such 
a very advanced civilization, seen by the 
words of the Friesland fisherman, and had 
considerable communication with Europe. 



122 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Literature of the Period 
Establishing New Facts. 

Again, they had a literature, their king 
possessed a library, and without forcing 
the conclusion very much we can say that 
the Latin books, found in this library were 
brought there by the Culdees, who carried 
them very carefully with them in all their 
wanderings. True, indeed, they may not 
have comprehended the Latin tongue, 
but then we must remember that these 
Americans of Irish origin had no teachers 
schooled in the Universities of Ireland. 

It is not alone the name of Estotiland, 
which lends a new proof to this probable 
identity of Irland It Mikla, and of this 
country discovered by the Friesland fisher- 
men; for Ireland, during all the Middle 
Ages is called Scotia or Scotland; and if 
the first editor of the voyages of the Zenoes, 

123 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

had misunderstood his text, and printed 
Estotiland for Escotiland, it is quite pos- 
sible that the Escotilanders descended in 
fact from the Irish colony, of which we 
have already told the story. For a further 
account of this colony we refer the reader 
to the "Voyages of the Venetian Brothers, 
Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, to the Northern 
Seas in the Fourteenth Century" which was 
published in English, in London, in 1873. 
It is true that many ages have rolled 
since the days when Bjern and Gudhlief 
exchanged their compliments, to the days 
when Zeno wrote about his voyages, and 
in this interval of near four hundred years, 
we find little or nothing in contemporary 
documents, which would allow us to war- 
rant, that the Irish of Europe had not 
forgotten their brothers in America, but it 
is none the less very probable that some 
other mariner should wish to visit a coun- 
try that had so enriched a number of his 
brave companions. There is no doubt, 
the reports of these voyages have not been 

134 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

preserved in history, although they ought 
to be by right and authenticity, and it is 
only by admitting the existence of Irland 
It Mikla, that we can explain a very 
curious Gaulish document, whose authen- 
ticity was never denied or even contested, 
and which appears to us to apply to this 
mysterious region so long ago colonized by 
the Irish monks. 

In the twelfth century, about the year 
1 1 70, a dispute arose between the sons of 
Owen Guyneth, king of Western Gaul, 
concerning the succession to the throne. 
Madoc, one of these princes, wearied and 
disgusted by these discussions, decided to 
emigrate, and seek a more tranquil so- 
journ. He directed his course, straight 
for the west, and leaving Ireland far be- 
hind him, he arrived in a strange country, 
which appeared so agreeable to him, that 
he returned to his own country and took 
with him a number of his followers, whom 
he persuaded without much trouble to ex- 
change a cold and sterile country for a 



12 



$ 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

magnificent region ; and the disturbances of a 
civil war for the peaceful possession of a 
country which no one could dispute. 

But David Powell, the Gaulish historian, 
who has preserved this curious and valu- 
able history, is not the only one who can 
be brought forward in support of Madoc. 
A bard, his co-patriot, Meredith, by name, 
also records the voyages of this Madoc 
in the unknown western seas. Now, this 
bard lived a long time before the discovery 
by Columbus, when no one could be sus- 
pected of having invented this story for 
the purpose of national conceit, or of giving 
to his country a glory which it did not 
deserve. 

The writer, Hakluyt, who published an 
account of the voyages of the English na- 
tion in 1600, A.D., quotes largely from this 
bard, but there is a better account given in 
the Gallic Triades, a work which appears 
to be transcribed in the twelfth century, 
and refers to the losses suffered by the Isle 
of Bretagne in Macdewag, Ab. Owen 



126 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Gwyned, who with six hundred men, em- 
barked in six ships, and arrived they knew 
not where. 

But this tradition, then, is it true? 
Most certainly it is. The inhabitants of 
the principality of Gaul, have always been 
energetic mariners. The coasts indented 
with bays and harbors, the wooded hills 
which descend almost to the very waves, 
the continual view of the ocean, all, as 
well as the traditions of their ancestors, 
contribute to inspire them with the idea 
of voyages beyond the seas. They had 
not forgotten, neither their King Arthur, 
nor the mysterious Avallon, who, they ex- 
pected some day, would chase the Saxons; 
but above all, every Gaul expected to meet 
this much-desired land in one of his fishing 
trips upon the ocean. 



127 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Gauls and the Whaling 

Industry. 

The Gauls, in fact, were the first to pur- 
sue the whale from the shore into the deep 
sea, and braving the tempest led back their 
dead captive, as an emblem of adventure 
and trophy. When dividing the spoils the 
harpooner received one-fourth more than 
his comrades, as a token of their apprecia- 
tion of his skill and daring. 

In these difficult voyages, carried on for 
passion or cupidity, they have often gone 
beyond the limits of their maritime ex- 
periences, and perhaps surprised by a 
tempest, they were driven upon unknown 
shores, which would be quite natural, when 
we recall that the space from where they 
hunted the whale to the American shores 
was only a short distance, and also the 
astonishing voyages that were taken in 



128 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

these frail barks. Some of them, who re- 
turned, recounted the marvels of the coun- 
try which they had visited, and this, in itself 
was enough to excite in all the nation the 
ardor of adventure. The chiefs of the 
country were effected, and one of them 
more daring than the others, resolved to see 
the glories of the great western land, the 
"Greater Ireland" of his fathers. 

Some say that the voyage of Madoc, 
had been invented from several others, 
and that Powell and Hakluyt had fab- 
ricated it, to sustain and legalize the pro- 
jects of Walter Raleigh, who, as his name 
shows, O'Rahallaigh or O'Reilly, was of 
Celtic origin. But here let us remark, 
that the English are not illustrations of like 
or similar analogies. Whenever they want 
to establish themselves in a country, they 
do not look to precedents or the arguments 
of retrospective eruditions except with a 
view to deceive, and only look to brutal 
force which has always characterized their 
settlements, and scruple not at the means 



129 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

employed so long as the desired end is ac- 
complished. Success is their object, and 
once accomplished, with "whatever is is 
right" both church and state sing in con- 
cert, "the end justifies the means." 

Besides, the reign of Elizabeth, which was 
an open war with Spain, had little time to 
spare, and little cared for its rights to pos- 
session in the New World, seeing its own 
very existence was in danger, and we can 
affirm it boldly, that the haughty and gal- 
lant Raleigh never dreamt to pose as the 
heir and successor to the Gaulish Madoc. 
It was thus in a virgin country, and at the 
head of a purely English expedition that 
Raleigh intended to create in America a 
new England, greater than the old. 

If the bard, Meredith, or the historian, 
Powell, or if the compiler of the "Triades" 
have re-told the voyage of Madoc, it is 
because the voyage was really executed, 
and that all things happened in it as it was 
recorded. We must not reject it because 
of tradition, for no less an authority than 

130 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

the great Humboldt, says in^referring to a 
similar matter, "I have not indulged in, 
nor do I sanction the contempt with which 
these national traditions have been treated. 
I have, on the contrary, the firm persua- 
sion, that with more assiduity in that 
direction, facts, entirely unknown to-day, 
shall be brought to light, which will give 
much explanation to intricate historic 
problems." 

We shall now endeavor to show from 
what country the Gaulish prince set sail, 
and to what people he belonged. Hakluyt 
pretended to find it in Yucatan, and he 
gave it as proof, the great number of 
crosses found in this country by the Span- 
iards in the sixteenth century; but the 
worship of the cross was propagated in 
America and the Old World ages before 
Christianity. This, then, proves nothing. 

Horn, also, believed in the reality of 
Madoc's voyage, but thought that he landed 
in Virginia. He attempted to support it by 
the traditions of the native Indians. He 



131 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

recalled that the Virginia Indians ren- 
dered homage to a certain Madeczunga or 
Madinga, whose name presented a certain 
analogy to that of Madoc. Laertes, enumer- 
ates with complacency, fifty words used 
by the Virginia Indians, and which are 
analogous to the Gaelic These resem- 
blances have been more signally marked 
by Ulloa in his "Philosophical Memoirs of 
the Discovery of America," but a great 
portion of them would appear forced to 
any but Celtic scholars, and it is for this 
reason that Robertson endeavored to rid- 
icule them in his ''History of America," 
edition of 1777. Shall we, then, conclude 
from the identity of the Virginian and 
Gaelic tongues, because that the former, in 
the time of Raleigh, had a Gaelic salute or 
address. Hoa, horis, loch; or else they 
called the bread, bara; the egg, toy; the 
mother, mam; the father, tas; the barrel 
of a pen, colaf; a fox, clynog; a nose, 
trwyn, or the heaven, neaf . Perhaps these 
resemblances are accidental, or may have 



132 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

been introduced at a very late epoch. To 
tell the truth, the necessities of contempor- 
ary science absolutely repels a parallel sys- 
tem of proofs. 

But they have still maintained upon other 
points of America, some pretended traces 
of the Gaelic language. Thus Torres 
Caicedo, in the Revue Americaine says, 
that the Tuneba language, spoken by the 
Indians of Tierro Adentro, in the province 
of Tunja, north of New Granada, abounds 
in Gaulish words, which they have used 
for a very long time. 



133 



CHAPTER XX. 

Filson's Proof of the Celtic Tongue 

BEING Spoken by American Indians. 

Now where did this Madoc, in 1170, 
settle among his kindred people ? We can 
only, now, conjecture, but offer you some 
of the many evidences that exist. Filson 
in his "History of Kentucky" tells of 
one Captain Abraham, who in the Revo- 
lutionary War, was cast among a tribe of 
Indians, that conversed freely in the Gaelic 
tongue with a number of Gallo-French 
soldiers, who were with him. The French- 
men understood the Indians thoroughly, 
and from them learned a great deal 
concerning themselves and the western 
country. 

Another Gaul, named Beatty, was one 
day surprised by a party of Carolina sav- 
ages, who prepared to kill him, as our 
highly civilized nations would a supposed 

134 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

spy. A minister of God, by trade, he 
looked to heaven for sympathy and assist- 
ance, and loudly addressed a few words 
to the invisible powers, for pardon of past 
offences. He was fortunate. They were 
not spoken in Latin, English, or Hebrew, 
but in good, plain Gaelic, and they were 
not spoken in vain, for it was the language 
of his captors, who, instead of executing 
him, took him some distance inward where 
they had a flourishing colony, and where he 
had the pleasure of preaching to them on 
several occasions; but what surprised him 
most was a roll of manuscript which they 
showed him, and told him was a copy of 
their own sacred Celtic Scriptures in their 
own tongue and script, but entirely dif- 
ferent from anything he had ever seen. In 
his "Journal of Two Months" he refers 
to this episode at great length, and is sup- 
ported by the "Philosophical Memoirs" 
of Lefebre, who quotes another adventurer 
named Sutton, that was fortunate enough 
to fall among this same Indian tribe. 



135 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

Owen in his "British Antiquities" cites 
another pecuHar case of one Morgan Jones, 
who was made prisoner by the Doegs and 
Tuscaroras of Virginia, in 1685, A. D., but 
was spared by them because he spoke their 
own language. "They treated us most 
affably," writes Mr. Jones, "I spoke to 
them on numerous things in the Gallic 
language, and preached three sermons for 
them, every week, in Gallic. It gave them 
great pleasure to communicate their most 
difficult affairs to me, and when we were 
leaving them, they treated us with much 
civiUty and manliness." 

It is certainly not necessary to place a 
confidence too absolute in these testimonies, 
of which some have, perhaps, been invented 
in later days, and a little suspected, but 
still it shows that the tradition of Madoc 
has never been lost, even in America, and 
that it was not the Irish alone, who knew of 
a great western island, called Greater 
Ireland, but that their kinsmen, the Gauls, 
were well aware of the existence of this 

136 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

land, and when Madoc set out to visit 
his kinsmen, he was well aware of their 
existence, and the location they occupied. 

Now, it is not in Yucatan, Virginia, Car- 
olina, Kentucky, or New Granada, that 
we must seek the site of the colony headed 
by Madoc. It is only in Irland It Mikla 
that we are sure to find it. The Irish and 
the Gauls are, in fact, the same race. 
They have always had kindred relations 
and intercommunications. It is thus we 
see by the Pagan and Christian legends of 
which we have given the analysis, that the 
Gauls as well as the Irish, believed in the 
existence of isles and continents on the 
other side of the Atlantic. 

In spite of the precaution taken by the 
Irish, for the purpose of hiding their mar- 
itime discoveries, it was impossible that 
vague rumors should not be known, and 
especially to their neighbors and kinsmen, 
the Gauls. So it was, that when Madoc 
formed the project of emigrating, it was 
not to chance, that he entrusted his 



137 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

adventures upon the ocean. He knew of the 
existence of *'Irland It Mikla," and it was 
there that he particularly directed his steps, 
where he was sure to find before him, some 
of his kinsmen, and consequently, expected 
a good and a hearty reception. 



13S 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The Implanting of the Cross on 
American Soil. 

Nothing now remains but to find the 
site of this Irland It Mikla, this land of 
asylum in the Middle Ages, where was sue 
cessively sheltered ,the Irish, chased from 
their maritime possessions by the North- 
men, and the Gauls, who left their homes, 
to search adventure beyond the seas. 

Several savants are unwilling to repro- 
duce an assertion of Rafin, who placed 
''Irland It Mikla" in the middle portion 
of the United States, and founded his state- 
ment upon a vague tradition of the Savan- 
nah Indians, according to which Florida 
should have been formerly inhabited by 
men of a white race, who used iron tools. 
He further alleges pretended analogy of 
language and persistent traces of Chris- 
tianity there. Beauvais, however, 



139 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

in his "Discovery of the New World by the 
Irish" has demonstrated by an attentive 
study of texts, and a rigid argumentation, 
that the true position of "Irland It Mikla" 
should be placed much further to the north, 
perhaps, somewhere round the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. 

It resulted in fact from different pass- 
ages in the Northern Sagas, that "Irland It 
Mikla" was situated between Helluland 
and Vinland. Helluland, according to the 
voyages of the Northmen in America, was 
our present Labrador, and Vinland cor- 
responded nearly to the present States of 
New York, Rhode Island and Massachu- 
setts; and as they placed Irland It Mikla 
between those two countries, it must have 
occupied the southern shores of the St. 
Lawrence and the islands which stud the 
Gulf. 

The authenticity of this new theory is 
confirmed by the continual traces of Chris- 
tianity, or some other cult with common 
origin, in this region, when first visited 



140 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

by French missionaries from . Canada. 
One of these, a Father Le Clerque, was 
stationed for twelve years (1675-87), in 
Gaspasia, the region which corresponds to 
the ancient Huitra-manna-land. 

Very much surprised to find the worship 
of the cross established among the savages, 
he was delighted while evangelizing them. 
He studied their manners and traditions, 
and on returning'^to France, embodied his 
observations in a work, now very rare, 
which was published in Paris 1691. "The 
ancient worship and religious custom of 
the Cross," wrote this priest, "which is 
admired to-day among those savages should 
persuade us that this people have formerly 
received a knowledge of the cross, evan- 
gelism and Christianity, which was lost by 
the negligence of their ancestors." 



141 



CHAPTER XXIL 

Father Le Clerque Concludes that 

THE Cross was Implanted on 

American Soil by the Gauls. 

Father Le Clerque concludes that the 
civilization of the Cross was implanted in 
those regions by some Gaulish or kindred 
people, who venerated the ideas expressed 
by those symbols. He says, "These In- 
dians, infidel though they be, hold the 
cross in great veneration." "They bear 
it, figured upon their clothes, and upon 
their skin, they hold it in their hands when 
travelling either by sea or land, and placed 
it at both ends of their houses as a mark of 
honor, to distinguish them from the other 
tribes of Canada." The good priest en- 
deavored to find out the origin of this form 
of worship, but its origin, like that of all 
forms of religious worship was so obscure, 
that it was impossible in his day, 1675, to 



142 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

say just when it began. However, he 
learned enough from their traditions to 
assert, that they first received a knowledge 
of the cross from a man who came across 
the seas and having settled among them, 
devoted his time to the instruction of the 
people. One old man said, that "Their 
ancestors were dying of hunger, when 
there appeared among them a youth, bear- 
ing a cross, who told them to adore this 
emblem of salvation. They obeyed, and 
were rescued, but to this day, they pre- 
serve for this sacred sign the most pro- 
found veneration. 

As Father Le Clerque composed his 
book at the end of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, it may be objected to on the ground 
that the Aborigines, with whom he was so 
much astonished in finding them Chris- 
tians, almost, had perhaps been evangel- 
ized by the first Europeans who landed in 
the country in the sixteenth century, but 
we reply that those Europeans had been 
just as much astonished themselves, by 



143 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

the numerous vestiges of Christianity that 
they had met. 

In 1534, A. D., seeing Jacques Cartier 
plant a cross upon the coast, the Aborigines 
had indicated to him by signs, which he 
found similarly placed in their territory, 
that they were no strangers to Christianity. 
At the time of Jean Alphonse, 1541, A. D., 
their language contained many Latin 
words which he gives in his manuscripts 
of 1542. 

In the year 1502, A. D., Champlain 
found on the shores of the Bay of Fundy, a 
wooden cross, covered with moss and al- 
most rotten. On going further inland, 
he found that the Aborigines, not only made 
the sign of the cross occasionally, but had 
it engraved upon their skins, marked upon 
their clothes, and erected in their cabins. 
Lescarbot, in his "History of New France" 
does not hesitate to write "that these 
people have sprung from some race of men, 
who have been instructed in the faith of 
our God." 



144 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

It is easy to multiply examples, but have 
we not shown enough to prove, that, tra- 
dition, is in accord with history, in demon- 
strating, without the shadow of a doubt, 
the existence in America, of a colony 
founded by the Irish people, several cen- 
turies before Columbus left the European 
shores. 

As I have already written more upon this 
subject than I originally intended, I will 
now conclude by calling the attention of all 
my thinking countrymen and women to 
the period when our people were the stan- 
dard bearers of a civilization that was 
peculiarly their own; that this was at a 
period when the present Anglo-Italio- Judaic 
civilization was almost unknown; that 
either consciously or unconsciously we have 
neglected our own ideals, and have been 
the mainstay of these foreign ones, thereby 
degrading ourselves, and in a correspond- 
ing degree, elevating those, who, when in 
position have ruthlessly sacrificed us, and 
compelled us to carry the cross of their 



145 



THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 

civilization instead of our own, producing 
the conditions as they exist to-day, our igno- 
rance of the glory and humanity of our an 
cestors, while we display an immense 
knowledge of a barbarous European civil- 
ization which is, and was ever antagonistic 
to the manners, customs, and welfare of 
our Celtic Race. 



146 



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